IF anyone can complain about building work overrunning it is Prince Albert II of Monaco. It all began in 2015, when painters discovered fragments of unfamiliar paintwork in the vaulted Hercules Gallery, which transpired to be lime-based plaster used in frescos. Specialist restorers began to remove the 19th-century decoration with scalpels and lasers, a risky and painstaking process that ultimately revealed a series of hidden Italian Renaissance scenes. ‘They feature mythological men, women and animals and would have been catalysts for discussions about culture and philosophy,’ explains Christian Gautier, who has led the restoration project.
In 2016, the project spread to another group of state rooms when
