The Dresden-based Semperoper, one of Germany's most eminent -- and most ostentatious -- opera houses, is getting a serious facelift. The eastern region of Saxony, home to the two-century-old building, has designated some €40,000 ($53,000) for just this purpose. The renovation includes the meticulous restoration of a 200-square-meter (660-square-foot) painted curtain. Here, craftsman have spead the drapery across the floor of the opera's adjacent workshop to clean and rework it. The artwork, which went missing during World War II and was later painstakingly reconstructed according to the original design by German painter Ferdinand Keller, will once again be available for public viewing at the end of August.