The extent of darkening of various oil paint films on exposure to heat and the return of color attained by bleaching them with light have been investigated by reflectance spectrophotometry. Both long wavelength ultraviolet and visible radiation have been found to return paint color to an appearance which is often close to the original. In the cases studied, the degree of heatinduced darkening and subsequent color recovery during bleaching were different for each paint film, but most were substantially brightened by the action of the light. Various aspects of this potential tool for the conservation of fire-damaged oil paintings are discussed.