When the restorers took down the false ceiling of the bar in the spring of 2019, they expected to find plaster. They found green paint, and under the green paint, gold.
A ceiling for the capital
The bar was painted in 1932 by a decorator from Riga whose name the order books give only as "Mr K." He laid a sunburst of gilt rays across the whole ceiling, rising from the corner where the piano stood.
Five coats of green
In 1950 the hotel became offices. The bar was a typing pool, and a sunburst over a typing pool was thought unsuitable. It was painted over, and over again, five times in forty years.
Every ray was still there. Some had lost their gold, but none had lost its line.
Bringing back the gold
Two restorers spent eleven months on scaffolding, taking the paint away a square centimetre at a time and laying new gold leaf only where the old had gone. You can see the difference if you know where to look. Ask Lukas; he will show you.
