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 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 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=PLLxFeD9MHd7Sr3TsXQnCla-XirSkZt46H