Art restoration

Renowned Professional Art Restorer from Madrid, Spain Collaborates With
California Lab On Smoke and Water Damage On Art Objects
And On A Public Art Project Of A WPA Mural.
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
Fire and Smoke Damage in a Baroque Church in Toledo, Spain

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 note by 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 a testimonial by Julia Betancor during her 2 month+ "working vacation" in
our Santa Barbara location.
Here is our YouTube channel's playlist of
testimonials: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL41D80C1C65FF2CE7
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=PLLxFeD9MHd7
Sr3TsXQnCla-XirSkZt46H