By
Flora Arguilla, Guest Blogger
After meeting staff members from Fine Art
Conservation Laboratories (FACL) at the national annual conference for the
American Institute for Conservation (AIC) in Chicago and a visit in Madrid and
Toledo, Spain, renowned art restorer Julia Betancor was invited to come to
FACL’s lab in Santa Barbara, CA to collaborate on several projects. She has
expressed interest in FACL’s services that include preservation for art objects
affected by disaster and the cleaning of these items. She has been previously
involved with such conservation projects in Toledo and Madrid.
Here is a quick video about one of her
projects: CLICK LINK
In this video, Betancor explains the damages to artifacts
caused by a fire that has occurred at an important historical site in Madrid.
The description of the damage is accompanied by pictures — what was supposed to
be a beautifully gilded altar sanctuary had been reduced to a dingy gray, smoke
and fire-damaged background to a charred wooden altar. The ceilings, originally
a lively red color were stained gray and brown. Images of the Church before and
after the restoration process show the dazzling results of Julia’s work. This
and projects similar lead to the exciting collaboration between Ms. Betancor
and the conservation team at FACL.
Ms. Betancor brought her experience to our facility to “talk
shop” and assist us in an interesting mural project we are working on for a
community in the Los Angeles area.
The ever-present headaches of the clean up of the artwork
and its restoration is of particular interest to the conservators — especially
after the art objects previously underwent inept and “generous” restoration
effort in the past. The WPA mural panels that Ms. Betancor is working on is a
good example of one of these projects that need extra care. The mural was
practically repainted thirty years earlier…which makes professional and high
quality restoration a much more complicated process. Resolving these types of
problems in the best interest of the artwork and the client are engaging
problem solving exercises. On a more publicized noteby mainstream news, a similar
painting that was marred by previous restorations and then recouped through
quality art conservation efforts has been Leonardo Da Vinci’s Salvador Mundi
that recently sold for $480million; the restoration issues were also widely
discussed.
FACL’s disaster response team is headed by Mr. Andrew Jacobs
and he is assisted by art conservators Scott M. Haskins, Oriana Montemurro, and
Virginia Panizzon. You may get ahold of any of them with questions at (805)
564-3438 or faclartdoc@gmail.com
Here is our mural capabilities
statement: http://www.fineartconservationlab.com/mural/
Here are more short videos on the disaster response
services offered for art related items: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Umg_5trfe8&list=PLLxFeD9MHd7Sr3TsXQnCla-XirSkZt46H
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