Technically it had now been privatised, but its balance sheet had not been cleaned up.

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The "Grace Darling", as it became known, had been on show since 1938, but was never cleaned to museum conservation standards.

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"While the boat was cleaned twice it was not on call and if there had been an emergency there would have been a problem, " he said.

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But perhaps the greatest star of the show comes from the Cincinnati Art Museum, "Undergrowth with Two Figures" (1890), a stunning work that has been cleaned for the occasion and looks just as fresh as if it had been painted yesterday.

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And the mud that had to be shoved down the hole to keep it under control in recent months has now been cleaned out of the hole.

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