We see it time and time again in Italy: A run-of-the-mill restoration gets underway, only to be interrupted by the discovery of new artworks and artifacts.

This was the case last week when a group of restorers in Florence, working on an unused staircase inside the Palazzo Vecchio, announced they had peeled back layers of plaster — only to find a series of grottesche frescoes thought to date from the mid-16th century. (“Grotesques” or grotesque motifs are decorative, often whimsically arranged depictions of animals, humans and plants.)