Twentieth-century paintings made with industrial paints have often been restored without a thorough knowledge of their chemical and physical properties. In particular, contemporary paintings have often been retouched using materials rather similar to the originals, thus compromising the actual reversibility of the overpainting. Therefore, the selective removal of overpaints is a challenging task in these cases as the use of organic solvents may often be limited because of their lack of selectivity. Lasers may offer a viable solution for the selective removal of overpaints without compromising the underlying original layers.