How a ghostly outline revealed the secret of Modigliani's lost lover

No one wants to be reminded of a failed relationship by having the ex's portrait hanging around. After Amedeo Modigliani and his lover, Beatrice Hastings, broke up, the Italian artist is thought to have obliterated her memory by painting another woman's likeness over his portrait of her. So he might not be too happy to learn that science has now brought back that "lost" portrait, using artificial intelligence, an X-ray and 3D-printing to re-create the painting, with full colour and textured brushstrokes. Portrait of a Girl, a 1917 masterpiece, is owned by the Tate, which was taken aback in 2018 to discover an earlier portrait beneath the picture. X-rays revealed the ghostly outlines of a full-length figure, prompting the then curator, Nancy Ireson, to suggest that it was a portrait of Hastings, and that Modigliani "might have painted her out" after their intense two-year relationship ended in 1916.