After 18 months of painstaking restoration, a 19th-century reproduction of Spanish painter Bartolomé Murillo’s The Holy Family was reinstalled Tuesday in St. Matthew’s Cathedral in Old East Dallas.
The 6-foot-by-8-foot oil painting, purchased in 1873 by a New York woman traveling through Europe, was a fixture at the Episcopal church for more than 70 years until it was taken down to be cleaned.
“It’s like an old friend coming back to us,” said the Rev. Kevin Martin, dean of the cathedral.