Missing Piece: Art Puzzles

A painting arrives with pieces missing. From Van Gogh's cypresses, Monet's water lilies, Leonardo's Last Supper, and Klimt's Vienna to the plates of the great natural-history illustrators, each masterpiece is a puzzle waiting to be restored. Set the last piece in place, and the painting tells you its true story, and the story of the artist who made it. Van Gogh painted The Starry Night from an asylum, over a village he could not see from his window, then counted it a setback. Monet, pressed for a title, gave a sunrise the name that named the Impressionism movement. Everyone sees a pregnant bride in Van Eyck's Arnolfini portrait. She is not pregnant, and scholars no longer call it a wedding. Look up toward the ceiling instead: one candle burns, and one has been snuffed out. Every restored work hangs in your gallery with a short docent's note: what to look at, why it matters, what it…