During a conservation-restoration intervention, it was verified that 12 cartouches of a polychrome wooden folding screen with Oriental features had extensive repainting which, as was shown by infrared images, tried to conceal the western origin of the painted figures and the Christian symbols. Originally, acts of the life of St. Dominic of Guzman were depicted and the repaints, probably made in a period of time during which Christianity was banned in China (from 1724 until the 1840s), aimed the desacralization of the object. This desacralization corresponds to a particular type of unintentional iconoclasm which did not intend to attack what the images represented, but to preserve the community, which kept its religious beliefs, and the object itself. The detailed analysis of the issues posed by these repaints led to a decision that contemplates their maintenance, despite the crude nature of these additions, due to their historical and documental value.