A conservator at Lebanon's Ministry of Culture became unshakably convinced that some of the paintings in her care would "walk away." She warned her colleagues again and again, but in vain. She grew so frantic, so consumed by this certainty, that they finally agreed to triple and quadruple the staples and nails, if only to quiet her.

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You can see their handiwork here — how far they went. One painting ended up with sixty-seven additional nails, another with seven massive screws, and another with eighteen more.

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Did it work? Did it keep the images from running away? So far, yes. But the conservator's conviction has never loosened. "Should the paintings ever decide to leave," she said recently, "a million nails and staples would not hold them back."