Restoration damages Shakespeare portrait

CAMBRIDGE, England, March 28 (UPI) -- Art conservators in Britain mistakenly removed key details from a portrait of playwright-poet William Shakespeare while restoring it, an expert says.

Rupert Featherstone, Hamilton Kerr Institute director, said the so-called Cobbe portrait of the venerable Elizabethan-era bard had included valuable insights into what Shakespeare actually looked like, The Daily Telegraph reported Saturday.

The Cobbe portrait was only recently declared as a rare painting believed to have been created while Shakespeare was still alive.

The top layer of paint of the portrait, and that of another Shakespeare painting tabbed the Folger portrait, were removed by art conservators in an attempt to uncover suspected original versions beneath. The Cobbe portrait was restored in 2002 before its true historical value was known.

Featherstone said the layer removed from the Cobbe portrait could potentially have offered rare insights into how Shakespeare, who died in 1616, had aged over time.

"We can no longer peer down a microscope to look at the physical evidence of the over-paint," he told the Telegraph.