55 Conservator restorers

A conservator-restorer is a professional responsible for the preservation of artistic and cultural artifacts, also known as cultural heritage. Conservators possess the expertise to preserve cultural heritage in a way that retains the integrity of the object, building or site, including its historical significance, context and aesthetic or visual aspects. This kind of preservation is done by analyzing and assessing the condition of cultural property, understanding processes and evidence of deterioration, planning collections care or site management strategies that prevent damage, carrying out conservation treatments, and conducting research. A conservator's job is to ensure that the objects in a museum's collection are kept in the best possible condition, as well as to serve the museum's mission to bring art before the public.

Gerda Maria Ahlm was a Swedish-born painter and art conservator.

Franc Avsec was a Slovenian Roman Catholic priest, restoration expert, editor, and journalist.

Umberto Baldini was an art historian and specialist in the theory of art restoration.

Biagio Biagetti was an Italian painter and art-restorer, mainly working with sacred subjects.

Victoria Blyth Hill was an American art conservator who lived and worked in the Venice area of Los Angeles. She retired from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art as the Director, Conservation Center in June 2005 when she was honored with an appointment as Senior Conservator Emeritus at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA). Subsequently she worked with private clients, including artists, individuals, and museums, and operated an art conservation studio near her home. She was a past president of the Western Association for Art Conservation (1979). Blyth-Hill was elected Fellow of the American Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works (AIC) in 1990.

Carlos Augusto Bonvalot was an early 20th-century Portuguese painter, noted for his portraits of an intimist nature and for his realist depictions of daily life around the town of Cascais. Apart from painting, Bonvalot was an important authority in conservation and restoration of artworks; most notably, he was a pioneer in the country in the technical examination of paintings using X-rays.

Cesare Brandi was an art critic and historian, specialist in conservation-restoration theory.

Terry Lee Brown is an American specialist in museum conservation and restoration. He is the owner of Museum Professionals, a Minnesota company that designs exhibits and restores artifacts at museums, visitor centers and nature centers.

Dorothea ("Thea") Burns is an independent art researcher and former chief conservator of works on paper at the Weissman Preservation Center of Harvard University. She is an expert on pastel art and metalpoint drawing.

Aviva Ruth Burnstock is head of the Department of Art Conservation & Technology at the Courtauld Institute, London. Burnstock is a graduate of the University of Sussex and took in 1991 a PhD at the Courtauld Institute

Chris Caple, FSA, FIIC, is a senior lecturer at Durham University, who specialises in the conservation of artefacts. Involved in archaeological excavations from the age of 14, Caple holds degrees from the University of Wales and the University of Bradford. He has worked as a conservator at York Castle Museum and in 1988 was appointed as director of Durham University's artefact conservation postgraduate programme. In 2002 he was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries.

Giovanni Cingolani was an Italian painter and art-restorer, mainly working with sacred subjects.

The De Wild family was a Dutch family of art professionals, including conservator-restorers, art dealers, painters, and connoisseurs. Prominent internationally in the late nineteenth century and into the twentieth century, they were especially known for their advances in art restoration.

Suzanne Deal Booth is an American art director, collector, philanthropist, and winemaker. She has worked as an arts advisor and is the Founder and the Director of Friends of Heritage Preservation (FOHP).

John Doubleday was a British craftsperson, restorer, and dealer in antiquities who was employed by the British Museum for the last 20 years of his life. He undertook several duties for the museum, not least as a witness in criminal trials, but was primarily their specialist restorer, perhaps the first person to hold the position. He is best known for his 1845 restoration of the severely-damaged Roman Portland Vase, an accomplishment that places him at the forefront of his profession at the time.

Dolores Marta Gracia de Gangotena y Jijón was an Ecuadorian art collector, conservationist. She was First Lady of Ecuador to Camilo Ponce Enríquez from 16 September 1956 to 31 August 1960.

Ione Gladys Gedye was a pioneer conservator who founded the Repair Department at the Institute of Archaeology. She worked for over several decades in conservation at the Institute and was also a significant influence in the early years of archaeologically-themed television programmes.

Tania Ghirshman (1900–1984), born Antoinette Levienne, was a French archaeologist and restorationist of Ukrainian origin. Originally a dentist, Ghirshman became involved in archaeology after her marriage to Roman Ghirshman, with whom she directed numerous excavations in Iran and Afghanistan, most notably the ancient city of Susa. She abandoned her career as a dental surgeon and adapted her skills in dentistry to restoration accompanying her husband Roman Ghirshman on all of his missions providing much practical support especially during difficult circumstances. Drawing the illustration for his works she also helped in restorative works on the excavated projects, as well as providing reproductions for her husband's publications. Her memoir, Archéologue malgré moi, was awarded a Prix Broquette-Gonin in literature by the Académie française in 1971. Her memoir gave a colourful description of her life on the missions with her husband.

Igor Emmanuilovich Grabar was a Russian post-impressionist painter, publisher, restorer and historian of art. Grabar, descendant of a wealthy Rusyn family, was trained as a painter by Ilya Repin in Saint Petersburg and by Anton Ažbe in Munich. He reached his peak in painting in 1903–1907 and was notable for a peculiar divisionist painting technique bordering on pointillism and his rendition of snow.

Nora Griffith was a Scottish Egyptologist, archaeologist, illustrator and conservator. On the death of her husband, the eminent Egyptologist Francis Llewellyn Griffith, she founded and endowed the Griffith Institute at Oxford University with their joint fortunes and collections.

Alois Hauser was a German art restorer, court painter and curator.

Samuel Felrath Hines Jr. was an African American visual artist and art conservator. Hines served as a conservator at several institutions, including the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C., and his paintings can be found in the collection of the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

Valeriy Victorovich Igoshev is a Russian scientist. He is the lead researcher of the Department of Manuscripts of the State Research Institute of the Art Restorations in Moscow. His expertise is in the attribution of ancient liturgical books and Russian metal art from the 14th to 20th centuries.

Annie Nicolette Zadoks Josephus Jitta was a Dutch numismatist and archaeologist.

Sunita Kohli is an Indian interior designer, architectural restorer and furniture manufacturer. She had restored and decorated Rashtrapati Bhavan, Parliament House Colonnade (1985–1989), the Prime Minister's Office and Hyderabad House in New Delhi.

Fritz Kühn was an East German visual artist whose output included sculpture, metal-artwork and photography.

Mark Augustus Landis is an American painter who lives in Laurel, Mississippi. He is best known for "donating" large numbers of forged paintings and drawings to American art museums.

Jean-Baptiste-Pierre Le Brun or Lebrun was a French painter, art collector and art dealer. Simon Denis was his pupil.

Stanley Littlejohn (1876–1917) was an English painting conservator and restorer. He is best known for his work on Tintoretto's sketches, and for his restoration of a number of paintings and drawings by William Blake, including Glad Day and The Ghost of a Flea.

Lokesh Ohri is an Indian anthropologist, historian, writer and a cultural activist based in Dehradun, Uttarakhand, who has campaigned for the preservation of the natural and cultural heritage of the Doon Valley. He is the founder of Been There Doon That, an educational initiative that spreads awareness about the natural, social and cultural history of the Doon Valley through walks, lectures and workshops. He is a convener for the Dehradun chapter of the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage.

Ketevan Konstantines asuli Magalashvili was a Georgian painter and art conservator.

Herbert James Maryon, OBE, FSA, FIIC was an English sculptor, conservator, goldsmith, archaeologist and authority on ancient metalwork. Maryon practiced and taught sculpture until retiring in 1939, then worked as a conservator with the British Museum from 1944 to 1961. He is best known for his work on the Sutton Hoo ship-burial, which led to his appointment as an Officer of the Order of the British Empire.

Janice Elaine Merrill-Oldham was an American librarian and conservator who was a preeminent figure in the field of library binding and conservation. She served as Malloy-Rabinowitz Preservation Librarian and director of the Weissman Preservation Center at the Harvard Library from 1995 to 2010. She founded and led the University of Connecticut Libraries' Preservation Department from 1983 to 1995.

Geneviève Meurgues is a French explorer, museologist, curator, conservator, chemical engineer and lecturer. As a professor at the Muséum national d'histoire naturelle, she specialised in the conservation of natural history specimens. She is noted for the preservation of the Roman boat found in Marseille and for her contribution to the establishment of the grande galerie de l'évolution du Muséum national d'histoire naturelle in Paris.

Howard Newman is an American painter, sculptor, art restorer, and inventor.

Oliver Brothers Fine Art Restoration and Conservation is believed to be the first art restoration establishment in the United States. For more than one and one-half centuries, the Olivers and their successors have restored and conserved antique and contemporary paintings, original works on paper, fine art prints, icons, murals, original photographs, documents, sculpture, gilded objects, and picture frames for private collectors, museums, art dealers, auction houses, galleries, corporations, universities, historical societies, libraries, and others.

The Honourable Anna Bridget Plowden, was a British archaeological conservator and restorer. She has been described as the first scientifically trained conservator to work in the private sector, rather than in a museum or university. She worked as a freelance conservator, having set up her own business, Anna Plowden Ltd, in 1968. In order to take on larger projects, her business merged with Peter Smith Ltd in 1985; Plowden and Smith Ltd remains "one of the largest and most successful businesses in the conservation private sector".

Alan Rankle is a British artist and is part of the duo Rankle & Reynolds. During a thirty-year career he has worked primarily as a painter. He explores social and environmental issues of the day through Landscape Art.

Helmut Ruhemann was a German painting conservator and restorer, considered the pre-eminent of his profession during his lifetime. He was born in Berlin and studied at Karlsruhe, Munich and Paris. He was instrumental both in the promotion and utilisation of x-rays as an art historical tool. and was progressive in his efforts to clean old master paintings in a faithful manner that did not impede on original brushstrokes or outlines. He contributed to the progression of both art history and conservation through his making available his detailed notes and photographs. One of his most celebrated restorations is that of Rogier van der Weyden's Saint Luke Drawing the Virgin, a task he undertook with extreme caution, as it pitted him against Max J. Friedlander, whom he faced down in his approach but who, in the end, was complimentary towards him.

Hinnerk Scheper,, as 'Gerhard Hermann Heinrich Scheper; died 5 February 1957 in Berlin) was a German colour designer, mural painter, architectural colorist, non-fiction author, photographer, monument conservator, restorer, state curator and urban planner.

Milton R. Shefter is a Los Angeles-based film and media-asset archivist and preservationist. He is best known for the creation, design, and management of the extensive Paramount Pictures Asset Protection Program, and for co-authoring the 2007 report from the Science and Technology Council of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, The Digital Dilemma, as well as its 2012 followup, The Digital Dilemma 2.

George Leslie Stout was an American art conservation specialist and museum director who founded the first laboratory in the United States to study art conservation, as well as the first journal on the subject of art conservation. During World War II, he was a member of the U.S. Army unit devoted to recovering art, the Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives section (MFAA), a.k.a. "The Monuments Men."

Magdaléna Štrompachová was a Hungarian-Slovak painter and restorer. She founded a fine arts school with her husband Ludwig Strompach where she was a teacher (1964-1973) Many artists followed her classes, her children were among them.

Fr. Adam Studziński was a Polish Roman Catholic priest. Studzinski served as chaplain of the Polish Armed Forces in the West during World War II.

Adolphe Pierre Sunaert, Adolphe Sunaert or Adolf Sunaert was a Belgian painter, printmaker, teacher and author. He played a role in the organization and conservation of the art collections of the city of Ghent.

Andrzej Stanisław Tomaszewski was a Polish historian of art and culture, architect, urban planner and archaeologist, investigator of medieval architecture and art in Poland and abroad. He was considered one of the most important and influential international scientists in the preservation and conservation of cultural heritage.

Ernest William Tristram (1882–1952) was a British art historian, artist and conservator, and Professor of Design at the Royal College of Art (1926–1948).

Alexandru Tzigara-Samurcaș was a Romanian art historian, ethnographer, museologist and cultural journalist, also known as local champion of art conservation, Romanian Police leader and pioneer radio broadcaster. Tzigara was a member of the Junimea literary society, holding positions at the National School of Fine Arts, the University of Bucharest and lastly the University of Cernăuți. During his youth, he was secretary to Carol I, the King of Romania. Close to the royal family, he also served as head of the Carol I Academic Foundation, where he set up a large collection of photographic plates. Tzigara achieved fame in 1906 as founder of the "National Museum", nucleus of the present-day Museum of the Romanian Peasant, but was also involved in arranging and preserving the Theodor Aman art fund.

Jef Van der Veken was a Belgian art restorer, copyist and art forger, who had mastered the art of reproducing the works of the Early Netherlandish painters.

Peter Charles van Geersdaele was an English conservator best known for his work on the Sutton Hoo ship-burial. Among other work he oversaw the creation of a plaster cast of the ship impression, from which a fibreglass replica of the ship was formed. He later helped mould an impression of the Graveney boat, in addition to other excavation and restoration work.

Cecylia Vetulani was a Polish art historian and conservator-restorer who did research mostly in the field of Warmia and Masuria folk art. She was a custodian of the Museum of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn (1950–1956).

Ennio Quirino Visconti was an Italian antiquarian and art historian, papal Prefect of Antiquities, and the leading expert of his day in the field of ancient Roman sculpture. His son, Pietro Ercole Visconti, edited Versi di Ennio Quirino Visconti, raccolti per cura di Pietro Visconti while Louis Visconti became a noted architect in France. His brother, Filippo Aurelio Visconti was also a classical scholar, who published the Museo Chiaramonti, a successor to the Museo Pio-Clementino.

Theo van Wijngaarden was a Dutch art forger.

Nigel Reuben Rook Williams was an English conservator and expert on the restoration of ceramics and glass. From 1961 until his death he worked at the British Museum, where he became the Chief Conservator of Ceramics and Glass in 1983. There his work included the successful restorations of the Sutton Hoo helmet and the Portland Vase.