I don't know what I am missing here. Xara doesn't destroy anything of the original so the original should still be in the Bitmap gallery after modification, saving, closing & re-opening. Simply drag it onto the design page.
If I am wrong, there is a setting under XDPX (not XWD(P)) Utilities > Options > Photo Editing > Photo Editing: tick Preserve original in... Masters subfolder as .xar or original. This kicks in for the Blank photo template, not general editing of images in a design.
A manual approach for all applications is to right-click on the original in the Bitmap gallery and Save off to a safe place, before closing or saving the design file.
Acorn
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