diff --git a/backend/src/app.ts b/backend/src/app.ts
index b0177dd..e4acc46 100755
--- a/backend/src/app.ts
+++ b/backend/src/app.ts
@@ -14,6 +14,7 @@ import adminItemDraftsRouter from './routes/adminItemDrafts';
 import intakeActionsRouter from './routes/intakeActions';
 import intakeRouter from './routes/intake';
 import adminVersionRouter from './routes/adminVersion';
+import adminConfigRouter from './routes/adminConfig';
 import filtersRouter from './routes/filters';
 import customersRouter from './routes/customers';
 import publicRouter from './routes/public';
@@ -84,6 +85,7 @@ app.use('/api/admin/tags', requireAdminGate, adminTagsRouter);
 app.use('/api/admin/upload-links', requireAdminGate, adminUploadLinksRouter);
 app.use('/api/admin/item-drafts', requireAdminGate, adminItemDraftsRouter);
 app.use('/api/admin/version', requireAdminGate, adminVersionRouter);
+app.use('/api/admin/config', requireAdminGate, adminConfigRouter);
 app.use('/api/admin', requireAdminGate, adminRouter);
 app.use('/api/customers/me/addresses', shippingAddressesRouter);
 app.use('/api/customers', customersRouter);
diff --git a/backend/src/itemSelect.ts b/backend/src/itemSelect.ts
index 28afc76..4ef8a7a 100644
--- a/backend/src/itemSelect.ts
+++ b/backend/src/itemSelect.ts
@@ -30,6 +30,26 @@ const IMAGES_SUBQUERY = `
     WHERE img.item_id = i.id
   ), '[]') AS images`;
 
+/**
+ * Admin-only images, carrying `original_image_path` alongside the public
+ * fields — the field the inventory screen needs to know whether a photo has a
+ * cut-out to restore (#293).
+ *
+ * A separate subquery rather than adding the column to `IMAGES_SUBQUERY`
+ * itself, for the same reason `PUBLIC_ITEM_SELECT` names its columns instead
+ * of using `i.*`: an original filename is internal — nobody's business on the
+ * storefront — and folding it into the one subquery both selects share would
+ * put it in every public item response too.
+ */
+const ADMIN_IMAGES_SUBQUERY = `
+  COALESCE((
+    SELECT json_agg(json_build_object('id', img.id, 'image_path', img.image_path, 'sort_order', img.sort_order,
+                                       'original_image_path', img.original_image_path)
+                    ORDER BY img.sort_order)
+    FROM item_images img
+    WHERE img.item_id = i.id
+  ), '[]') AS images`;
+
 const TAGS_SUBQUERY = `
   COALESCE((
     SELECT json_agg(json_build_object('id', t.id, 'name', t.name, 'color', t.color) ORDER BY t.name)
@@ -54,7 +74,7 @@ export const PUBLIC_ITEM_SELECT = `
 export const ADMIN_ITEM_SELECT = `
   SELECT i.*,
     c.name AS category_name,
-    ${IMAGES_SUBQUERY},
+    ${ADMIN_IMAGES_SUBQUERY},
     ${TAGS_SUBQUERY}
   ${FROM_CLAUSE}`;
 
@@ -89,16 +109,28 @@ interface ItemRowBase {
 /** What PUBLIC_ITEM_SELECT returns. Deliberately no payment or reservation columns. */
 export type PublicItemRow = ItemRowBase;
 
+/**
+ * An admin item's image: everything `ItemImage` has, plus where the
+ * background-removed photo's original went. `null` for a photo that was never
+ * cut out.
+ */
+export interface AdminItemImage extends ItemImage {
+  original_image_path: string | null;
+}
+
 /**
  * What ADMIN_ITEM_SELECT returns: `i.*`, so every column on the table.
  *
  * The extra fields are the ones the storefront is not allowed to see, which is
- * the whole reason the two selects differ.
+ * the whole reason the two selects differ. `images` is narrowed rather than
+ * inherited as-is, to match `ADMIN_IMAGES_SUBQUERY` carrying
+ * `original_image_path` where the public select's images do not.
  */
 export interface AdminItemRow extends ItemRowBase {
   reserved_until: Date | null;
   sold_at: Date | null;
   paypal_order_id: string | null;
+  images: AdminItemImage[];
 }
 
 /**
diff --git a/backend/src/routes/admin.ts b/backend/src/routes/admin.ts
index e522607..6e6c1cd 100755
--- a/backend/src/routes/admin.ts
+++ b/backend/src/routes/admin.ts
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@ import { asyncRoute } from '../asyncRoute';
 import { parseItemFilters, buildItemFilterSql, FilterError } from '../itemFilters';
 import { readId, tagColorFor } from '../utils';
 import { notifyFavoritersOfSale, notifyFavoritersOfRemoval, collectFavoriteRecipients } from '../favoriteAlerts';
+import { removeBackgroundsForItem, restoreOriginalsForItem } from '../intake/backgroundRemoval';
 // The upload pipeline moved to src/imageUpload.ts when #222's public intake
 // endpoint became a second caller. Mounting uploadImages gets the type
 // allowlist, the magic-byte check, and the EXIF-stripping re-encode together —
@@ -350,4 +351,59 @@ router.post('/items/:id/mark-available', asyncRoute(async (req: Request, res: Re
   res.json(available);
 }));
 
+/**
+ * One item's images, or null when the item does not exist.
+ *
+ * Checked before acting so an absent item is a 404 rather than a cheerful
+ * summary of nothing. `removeBackgroundsForItem` would happily report
+ * `total: 0` for an id that was never an item, which is true and useless.
+ */
+async function itemExists(itemId: number): Promise<boolean> {
+  const { rows } = await pool.query(`SELECT 1 FROM items WHERE id = $1`, [itemId]);
+  return rows.length > 0;
+}
+
+/**
+ * Remove the background from every photo of one item.
+ *
+ * Per item rather than per photo because an upload is one item: the front, the
+ * back and the chipped base are three views of one thing, not three things to
+ * cut out separately (#293).
+ *
+ * Answers 200 once the id is valid, even when the sidecar fails. Unlike the
+ * per-photo endpoints in #281, this acts on several images, so "did it work"
+ * has no single answer — two of four is the normal shape of a bad day here.
+ * A 502 would throw away the count, which is the only thing that makes the
+ * outcome actionable. Non-200 is reserved for not being able to try at all.
+ *
+ * No status check. A sold item's photos are still the shop's photos, and
+ * improving them changes nothing about the sale — the guards on `unpublish`
+ * protect a checkout in progress and a completed sale, neither of which is at
+ * stake in a photograph's background.
+ */
+router.post('/items/:id/remove-backgrounds', asyncRoute(async (req: Request, res: Response) => {
+  const itemId = readId(req.params.id);
+  if (itemId === null || !(await itemExists(itemId))) {
+    return res.status(404).json({ error: 'not found' });
+  }
+
+  res.json(await removeBackgroundsForItem(itemId));
+}));
+
+/**
+ * Put every original back.
+ *
+ * The reason removing is safe to try. Photos that were never cut out are
+ * skipped rather than refused, so a half-done item — what a partial failure
+ * leaves behind — is restorable too.
+ */
+router.post('/items/:id/restore-originals', asyncRoute(async (req: Request, res: Response) => {
+  const itemId = readId(req.params.id);
+  if (itemId === null || !(await itemExists(itemId))) {
+    return res.status(404).json({ error: 'not found' });
+  }
+
+  res.json(await restoreOriginalsForItem(itemId));
+}));
+
 export default router;
diff --git a/backend/src/routes/adminConfig.ts b/backend/src/routes/adminConfig.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..15cb12a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/backend/src/routes/adminConfig.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,27 @@
+import { Router, Request, Response } from 'express';
+import { isRembgConfigured } from '../intake/rembgClient';
+
+const router = Router();
+
+/**
+ * What the admin screens can offer in this environment.
+ *
+ * Behind `requireAdminGate` like every other admin router, and deliberately not
+ * folded into `/api/config` — the same reasoning `adminVersion.ts` records.
+ * That endpoint is public and the storefront fetches it on every load; nothing
+ * here is any of a customer's business.
+ *
+ * It exists because the inventory screen has no other way to learn this.
+ * `GET /api/admin/item-drafts` carries the flag for the review queue, but
+ * `GET /api/admin/items` answers a bare array with several consumers, and
+ * changing its shape for one boolean would be a worse trade than one small
+ * route.
+ *
+ * Not wrapped in `asyncRoute` because the handler is synchronous: it reads an
+ * environment variable, so there is no promise to reject.
+ */
+router.get('/', (_req: Request, res: Response) => {
+  res.json({ backgroundRemoval: isRembgConfigured() });
+});
+
+export default router;
diff --git a/backend/tests/integration/adminItemBackgrounds.integration.test.ts b/backend/tests/integration/adminItemBackgrounds.integration.test.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5093f4b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/backend/tests/integration/adminItemBackgrounds.integration.test.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,193 @@
+import http from 'http';
+import { AddressInfo } from 'net';
+import { promises as fsp } from 'fs';
+import os from 'os';
+import path from 'path';
+import request from 'supertest';
+import app from '../../src/app';
+import { pool } from '../../src/db';
+import { resetDb, closeDb } from './setup/testDb';
+
+const PNG_BYTES = Buffer.from([0x89, 0x50, 0x4e, 0x47, 0x0d, 0x0a, 0x1a, 0x0a, 0, 0, 0, 0]);
+const JPEG_BYTES = Buffer.from([0xff, 0xd8, 0xff, 0xe0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0]);
+
+let uploads = '';
+let previousUploadsDir: string | undefined;
+let stub: http.Server | null = null;
+
+/**
+ * A stub sidecar on an ephemeral port, and a temporary uploads directory.
+ *
+ * Port 0 rather than a fixed number: several ports in the 55000s are
+ * Hyper-V-reserved on this machine. No test here contacts a real rembg — it
+ * takes forty seconds to start, and a suite depending on that is broken by
+ * construction.
+ */
+async function startStub(
+  handler: (req: http.IncomingMessage, res: http.ServerResponse) => void
+): Promise<void> {
+  uploads = await fsp.mkdtemp(path.join(os.tmpdir(), 'itembg-'));
+  previousUploadsDir = process.env.UPLOADS_DIR;
+  process.env.UPLOADS_DIR = uploads;
+
+  stub = http.createServer((req, res) => {
+    req.on('data', () => undefined);
+    req.on('end', () => handler(req, res));
+  });
+  await new Promise<void>((resolve) => stub!.listen(0, '127.0.0.1', resolve));
+  process.env.REMBG_URL = `http://127.0.0.1:${(stub!.address() as AddressInfo).port}`;
+}
+
+function answerWithPng(_req: http.IncomingMessage, res: http.ServerResponse): void {
+  res.writeHead(200, { 'Content-Type': 'image/png' });
+  res.end(PNG_BYTES);
+}
+
+beforeEach(async () => {
+  await resetDb();
+});
+
+afterEach(async () => {
+  delete process.env.REMBG_URL;
+  if (previousUploadsDir === undefined) delete process.env.UPLOADS_DIR;
+  else process.env.UPLOADS_DIR = previousUploadsDir;
+  if (uploads) await fsp.rm(uploads, { recursive: true, force: true });
+  uploads = '';
+  if (stub) {
+    await new Promise<void>((resolve) => stub!.close(() => resolve()));
+    stub = null;
+  }
+});
+
+afterAll(async () => {
+  await pool.end();
+  await closeDb();
+});
+
+/** An available item with two photos on disk. */
+async function seedItem(): Promise<number> {
+  const { rows } = await pool.query<{ id: number }>(
+    `INSERT INTO items (name, status) VALUES ('Blue vase', 'available') RETURNING id`
+  );
+  const itemId = rows[0]!.id;
+  for (const [index, name] of ['front.jpg', 'back.jpg'].entries()) {
+    await pool.query(
+      `INSERT INTO item_images (item_id, image_path, sort_order) VALUES ($1, $2, $3)`,
+      [itemId, `/uploads/${name}`, index]
+    );
+    await fsp.writeFile(path.join(uploads, name), JPEG_BYTES);
+  }
+  return itemId;
+}
+
+describe('removing every background on an item', () => {
+  it('answers with the summary', async () => {
+    await startStub(answerWithPng);
+    const itemId = await seedItem();
+
+    const res = await request(app).post(`/api/admin/items/${itemId}/remove-backgrounds`);
+
+    expect(res.status).toBe(200);
+    expect(res.body).toEqual({ total: 2, removed: 2, failed: false });
+  });
+
+  // Every status, with no carve-out. A sold item's photos are still the shop's
+  // photos, and improving them changes nothing about the sale.
+  it.each(['sold', 'reserved', 'pending'])('works on a %s item', async (status) => {
+    await startStub(answerWithPng);
+    const itemId = await seedItem();
+    await pool.query(`UPDATE items SET status = $2 WHERE id = $1`, [itemId, status]);
+
+    const res = await request(app).post(`/api/admin/items/${itemId}/remove-backgrounds`);
+
+    expect(res.status).toBe(200);
+    expect(res.body.removed).toBe(2);
+  });
+
+  // The departure from #281's per-photo endpoints, and the reason for it: this
+  // acts on several images, so "did it work" has no single answer and a 502
+  // would throw away the count that makes the outcome actionable.
+  it('answers 200 with the count when the sidecar fails, not 502', async () => {
+    await startStub((_req, res) => {
+      res.writeHead(500);
+      res.end('boom');
+    });
+    const itemId = await seedItem();
+
+    const res = await request(app).post(`/api/admin/items/${itemId}/remove-backgrounds`);
+
+    expect(res.status).toBe(200);
+    expect(res.body).toEqual({ total: 2, removed: 0, failed: true });
+  });
+
+  it('answers 404 for an id that cannot be read', async () => {
+    await startStub(answerWithPng);
+
+    expect((await request(app).post('/api/admin/items/abc/remove-backgrounds')).status).toBe(404);
+  });
+
+  it('answers 404 for an item that does not exist', async () => {
+    await startStub(answerWithPng);
+
+    expect((await request(app).post('/api/admin/items/999999/remove-backgrounds')).status).toBe(404);
+  });
+});
+
+describe('restoring every original on an item', () => {
+  it('puts them back and says how many', async () => {
+    await startStub(answerWithPng);
+    const itemId = await seedItem();
+    await request(app).post(`/api/admin/items/${itemId}/remove-backgrounds`);
+
+    const res = await request(app).post(`/api/admin/items/${itemId}/restore-originals`);
+
+    expect(res.status).toBe(200);
+    expect(res.body).toEqual({ total: 2, restored: 2 });
+  });
+
+  it('answers 404 for an id that cannot be read', async () => {
+    await startStub(answerWithPng);
+
+    expect((await request(app).post('/api/admin/items/abc/restore-originals')).status).toBe(404);
+  });
+});
+
+// Extra scope beyond the endpoints themselves: Task 3 derives its button label
+// from `original_image_path`, which the admin item select did not carry before
+// this change. Asserted here because it is this task's select that changed.
+describe('what item images carry in each list', () => {
+  it('gives original_image_path to admin, not the storefront', async () => {
+    await startStub(answerWithPng);
+    const itemId = await seedItem();
+    await request(app).post(`/api/admin/items/${itemId}/remove-backgrounds`);
+
+    const adminRes = await request(app).get('/api/admin/items');
+    expect(adminRes.status).toBe(200);
+    const adminItem = adminRes.body.find((item: { id: number }) => item.id === itemId);
+    expect(adminItem.images[0]).toHaveProperty('original_image_path', '/uploads/front.jpg');
+
+    const publicRes = await request(app).get('/api/items');
+    expect(publicRes.status).toBe(200);
+    const publicItem = publicRes.body.find((item: { id: number }) => item.id === itemId);
+    expect(publicItem.images[0]).not.toHaveProperty('original_image_path');
+  });
+});
+
+describe('what the admin screen is told about the feature', () => {
+  it('says it is on when a sidecar is configured', async () => {
+    process.env.REMBG_URL = 'http://rembg-syn:7000';
+
+    const res = await request(app).get('/api/admin/config');
+
+    expect(res.status).toBe(200);
+    expect(res.body.backgroundRemoval).toBe(true);
+  });
+
+  it('says it is off when none is', async () => {
+    delete process.env.REMBG_URL;
+
+    const res = await request(app).get('/api/admin/config');
+
+    expect(res.body.backgroundRemoval).toBe(false);
+  });
+});