we began examining The Portrait, from 1935.

What started as a fairly routine conservation treatment

uncovered some very interesting details

about Magritte's painting.

As soon as we unframed The Portrait,

we noticed something unusual.

The paint actually went around the edges,

and it was painted on all four sides.

That was unusual for Magritte,

because normally, you can see

the white, priming layer on all the edges.

- We began with our normal examination process,

which involves taking the painting into the photo studio.

In ultraviolet, I noticed that there was

some sort of discoloration that was occurring,

that it wasn't clear if it was in the varnish

that was present,

or something coming from beneath the surface.

Proceeding with the cleaning,

I used a solvent-based solution to remove the varnish,

and once that was complete,

again took the painting back into the photo studio.

I could still see that form underneath,

but it was even more robust.

What was happening, is,

something underneath was fluorescing differently

than the upper paint layer.

In the darkroom, I held each x-ray film

up to the light box,

but you can only see one film at a time,

and it looked very unusual.

It looked like there was something else

underneath the bottle,

something else underneath the plate,

something else underneath the glass.

But without having them all together,

I couldn't make it out,

and it just looked like a series

of confusing brush strokes.

I actually rotated the x-ray to the left, 90 degrees.

I spent about a half an hour

sitting on the floor in front of it,

tracing my finger long it until I could

make out the form underneath.

I moved them closer and closer and let them overlap,

and I could see the outline of a nude woman beneath.

I was shocked and immediately got out my phone

and took pictures and texted my colleagues

to get the word out as fast as possible.

- After seeing this incredible image emerge

from underneath the portrait,

we were immediately wanting to know what the source was.

One of my colleagues from the Menil Collection

happened to be here and see it,

and suggested a painting that was actually

done by Magritte in 1927,

and was thought to be lost.

This work under The Portrait actually matched

a quarter of a section of The Enchanted Pose,

which was a much larger painting.

Now, we believe that he must have cut up the painting

into four sections and re-used the sections

for paintings in 1935.

- I've been working at MoMA

for a little over five years now,

and been fortunate enough to help with

a lot of x-radiography that is performed here,

but this was a first for me,

and probably the opportunity of a lifetime.