128-Year-Old Mystery Unfolded

Experts say that Vincent Willem van Gogh had a tendency to leave mysteries in his paintings. One such mystery has recently been unfolded by paintings conservator Mary Schafer. Perhaps, the Dutch post-Impressionist painter, himself, failed to find it while creating the masterpiece - Olive Trees - in 1889 and the mystery has been 'stuck' in the painting for 128 years.

What's the mystery?

In fact, Van Gogh made five pictures of olive orchards in November 1889 and Mary found the mystery in one of the paintings of that series. Mary and other curators at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City were scanning those paintings as a part of their research for a catalogue of its French painting collection. She found that 'something' was there in the work's lower foreground. At first, Mary thought that the object could be a leaf as it was the picture of a tree.

In an...