How a ghostly outline revealed the secret of Modigliani’s lost lover

The Italian artist may have wanted to brush Beatrice Hastings out of his life, but artifical intelligence has thwarted him by enabling a re-creation of the work

No one wants to be reminded of a failed relationship by having the ex's portrait hanging around. After Amedeo Modigliani and his lover, Beatrice Hastings, broke up, the Italian artist is thought to have obliterated her memory by painting another woman's likeness over his portrait of her.

So he might not be too happy to learn that science has now brought back that lost" portrait, using artificial intelligence, an X-ray and 3D-printing to re-create the painting, with full colour and textured brushstrokes.