Covered paintings turned up (9)
I believe the answer is:
traversed
'covered' is the definition.
('traverse' can be a synonym of 'cover')
'paintings turned up' is the wordplay.
'paintings' becomes 'art' (painting is an art).
'turned' is a reversal indicator.
'up' becomes 'versed' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'art' in reverse letter order is 'tra'.
'tra'+'versed'='TRAVERSED'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for traversed that I've seen before include "passed over" , "Travelled across zigzag course" , "Came across" , "Crossed" , "Went over" .)