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Lisa Pilosi

Sherman Fairchild Conservator in Charge

Lisa Pilosi is responsible for the academic and administrative supervision of the Department of Objects Conservation and is the department’s primary liaison with other Museum operations. Prior to assuming this role in July 2014, Lisa was principal conservator for three-dimensional glass objects in the Museum’s collection for 26 years. She served as chair of the ICOM Committee for Conservation (2011–14) and currently serves on the ICOM Disaster Risk Management Committee. Lisa earned a bachelor’s degree in art history and chemistry from the University of Pennsylvania and a master’s degree and certificate in conservation from the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University.

Selected Publications

Pilosi, Lisa, and Drew Anderson. “The Chariot of Poseidon by Jean Dupas and Jacques-Charles Champigneulle at The Metropolitan Museum of Art.” Journal of Glass Studies 56 (2014): 219–28.

Pilosi, Lisa, and David Whitehouse. “Early Islamic and Byzantine Silver Stain.” In New Light on Old Glass: Recent Research on Byzantine Mosaics and Glass (British Museum Research Publication 179), edited by Chris Entwistle and Liz James, 329–37. London: British Museum, 2013.

Whitehouse, David, Timothy B. Husband, Lisa Pilosi, Mary B. Shepard, and Mark T. Wypyski. “Glass Finds in the Metropolitan Museum of Art from the 1926 Expedition.” In Monfort, History, Early Research and Recent Studies of the Principal Fortress of the Teutonic Order in the Latin East, edited by Adrian J. Boas with the assistance of Rabei G. Khamisy, 176–94. The Medieval Mediterranean 107. Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2017.


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Dorothy Abramitis

Conservator

Dorothy Abramitis is principally responsible for the Greek and Roman collection. Her responsibilities include the technical examination and treatment of objects in all media. She was the supervising conservator for the 15-year reinstallation of the Greek and Roman galleries, which was completed in 2007. Dorothy has been involved in significant research on stone sculpture and polychromy in antiquity. She has participated in international organizations and symposia focused on these subjects, including the Polychrome RoundTable and ASMOSIA. She received a certificate in conservation with an MA in art history from New York University and an MFA in sculpture from Rutgers University.

Selected Publications

Abramitis, Dorothy H., and Abbe Mark B. “A group of painted funerary monuments from Hellenistic Alexandria in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.” In Les couleurs de l'Antique. Actes de la 8e table ronde internationale sur la polychromie antique / The Colours of the Antique (Polychromy in Ancient Sculpture and Architecture, 8th Round Table), edited by B. Bourgeois, pp. 60-71. Technè n°48, 2020.

Abramitis, Dorothy H. “Statue of an Old Woman: A Case Study in the Effects of Restorations on the Visual Aspect of Sculpture.” In “Appearance and Reality: Recent Studies in Conservation.The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 55, no. 3 (Winter 1997–98): 30–37

Abramitis, Dorothy. “Conservation Report, Bacchus Seated on a Panther.” In “A Giustiniani Bacchus and François Duquesnoy,” by Olga Reggio, 220–21. Metropolitan Museum Journal 40 (2005).


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Katerina Acuna

Assistant Conservator

Katerina Acuna joined the conservation team for the renovation of the Modern and Contemporary Art galleries in 2023. She started at The Met in 2020, working first as a graduate intern and then as Assistant Conservator in the Department of Musical Instruments. Katerina received a BA in art history from Binghamton University and an MS in art conservation from the Winterthur/University of Delaware Program in Art Conservation. She completed internships at the Brooklyn Museum, Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum, the Arizona State Museum, and the Frick Collection. She has also participated in archaeological fieldwork in France and New Mexico. Katerina has sought broad training throughout her career and has worked with materials ranging from ancient artifacts to contemporary sculpture.

Selected Publications

Acuna, Katerina and Karen Stamm. “Applications for Cast Nanocellulose in the Conservation of Three-Dimensional Glass Objects.” Poster presented at the Recent Advances in Glass and Ceramics Conservation Interim Meeting, NOVA School of Science and Technology, Lisbon, Portugal, November 2022.

Acuna, Katerina. “Organic Pseudomorphs: A Guide for Cultural Heritage Professionals.” Poster presented at the European Association of Archaeologists (EAA) 27th Annual Meeting, Kiel University, Kiel, Germany, September 2021.

Acuna, Katerina, Nancy Odegaard, Marilen Pool, Chris Stavroudis, and Gina Watkinson. “Trial by Fire: Continuing Research on Cleaning Solutions for Soot-Damaged Earthenware.” Poster presented at the Recent Advances in Glass and Ceramics Conservation Conference, British Museum, London, September 2019.

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Drew Anderson

Conservator

Drew Anderson is responsible for the Museum’s stained glass collection. He received an MA in stained glass conservation from the Victoria and Albert Museum/Royal College of Art and served as senior conservator in the Stained Glass Conservation Section of the Victoria and Albert Museum from 1999 to 2004. Drew previously held a position as production manager at Goddard and Gibbs Stained Glass Studios, Ltd. in London, and has served as a stained glass committee member of the Council for the Care of Churches and chairman of the ICON Stained Glass Section in the United Kingdom. He is currently chair of the conservation technical committee of the American Corpus Vitrearum.

Selected Publications

Anderson, Drew. “L. C. Tiffany’s Earliest Surviving Domestic Window.” In Techniques du vitrail au XIXe siècle, Forum pour la conservation et la restauration des vitraux, Namur 14–16 June 2007, edited by Isabelle Lecocq and Jacques Barlet, 81–89. Les Dossiers de l’IPW 3. Namur: Institut du patrimoine wallon, 2007.

Anderson, Drew, Alice Cooney Frelinghuysen, and Janis Mandrus. “Rediscovering Henry E. Sharp: The Conservation of the Faith and Hope Window at The Metropolitan Museum of Art.” In The Art of Collaboration: Stained-Glass Conservation in the Twenty-First Century (Corpus Vitrearum USA, Occasional Papers 2), edited by Mary B. Shepard, Lisa Pilosi, and Sebastian Strobl, 83–91. Turnhout: Harvey Miller Publications for the American Corpus Vitrearum, 2010.

Pilosi, Lisa, and Drew Anderson. “The Chariot of Poseidon by Jean Dupas and Jacques-Charles Champigneulle at The Metropolitan Museum of Art.” Journal of Glass Studies 56 (2014): 219–28.


Headshot of Nisha Bansil.

Nisha Bansil

Associate Conservation Preparator

Nisha Bansil joined the Objects Conservation Department in 2021 for the renovation of the Michael C. Rockefeller Wing. She has been working as a mount maker and preparator for over twenty years. Most recently, she was at the Museum of Natural History as a mount maker and installer for the Allison and Roberto Mignone Halls of Gems and Minerals, and the Northwest Coast expansion. Nisha received a bachelor’s degree in printmaking from SUNY New Paltz in 2001.

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Mechthild Baumeister

Conservator

Mechthild Baumeister has worked at The Met since 1988. Primarily responsible for the examination and treatment of furniture, wooden objects, and historic interiors in the Department of European Sculpture and Decorative Arts, she recently supervised the conservation and reinstallation of the historic interiors, furniture and wooden artifacts in the new British galleries. She also oversaw the conservation of wooden objects, including architectural structures, on display in the Islamic Art Galleries and has worked on Asian furniture. Her education includes an apprenticeship in cabinetmaking and training in furniture and polychrome wood conservation at the Westfälisches Landesmuseum für Kunst und Kultur in Münster, the Klosterkammer Hannover, and the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

Selected Publications

Baumeister, Mechthild. “The Hidden History of a Roentgen Commode.” In Extravagant Inventions: The Princely Furniture of the Roentgens, edited by Wolfram Koeppe, 222–28. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2012.

Baumeister, Mechthild, Beth Edelstein, Adriana Rizzo, Arianna Gambirasi, Timothy Hayes, Roos Keppler, and Julia Schultz. “A Splendid Welcome to the ‘House of Praises, Glorious Deeds and Magnanimity.’” In Conservation and the Eastern Mediterranean. International Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works (IIC), Contributions to the Istanbul Congress, 20–24 September 2010, edited by Christina Rozeik, Ashok Roy, and David Saunders, 126–33. London: International Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works, 2010.

Baumeister, Mechthild, Adriana Rizzo, Melanie Brussat, Erika Sanchez Goodwillie, and Batyah Shtrum. “A Re-evaluation of Three Period Rooms in the Wrightsman Galleries at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.” In Architectural Finishes in the Built Environment, edited by Mary A. Jablonski and Catherine R. Matsen, 201–16. London: Archetype, 2009.



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Lawrence Becker

Conservator Emeritus

Lawrence Becker was a member of the Museum’s conservation staff from 1980 to 1989. Following tenures at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts and the Worcester Art Museum, he returned to The Met in 2003 as Sherman Fairchild Conservator in Charge of Objects Conservation, a position he held until 2014. Initially focusing on the conservation and study of archaeological sculpture and objects from Egypt, West Asia, and the Greco-Roman world, his interests gradually shifted toward the arts of South, Southeast, and East Asia. Larry received undergraduate and law degrees from Columbia University and graduate training in art history and conservation from the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University.

Selected Publications

Becker, Lawrence, and Christine Kondoleon. The Arts of Antioch: Art Historical and Scientific Approaches to Roman Mosaics and a Catalogue of the Worcester Art Museum Antioch Collection. Worcester, MA: Worcester Art Museum, 2005.

Becker, Lawrence. “Technical Study of Two Northern Wei Altarpieces Dedicated to the Buddha Maitreya.” In Wisdom Embodied, Chinese Buddhist and Daoist Sculpture in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, by Denise Patry Leidy and Donna Strahan, 198–205. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2010.

Becker, Lawrence, Donna Strahan, and Ariel O'Connor. “Technical Observations on Casting Technology in First-Millennium Cambodia, Thailand, and Vietnam.” In Lost Kingdoms: Hindu-Buddhist Sculpture of Early Southeast Asia, by John Guy, 267–71. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2014.




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Warren Bennett

Conservation Preparator

Warren Bennett joined the Department of Objects Conservation in 2010. He came to The Met on a contract with the Department of Islamic Art in 2006, during the renovation of the New Galleries for the Art of the Arab Lands, Turkey, Iran, Central Asia, and Later South Asia. Prior to that, Bennett worked as a model maker and scenic painter for television, animated films, and commercials, and, most recently, at the American Museum of Natural History as an assistant preparator.

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Olav Bjornerud

Assistant Conservator

Olav Bjornerud is a member of the conservation team working on the renovation of the Modern and Contemporary Art galleries. Prior to joining The Met’s staff in 2023, Olav was a graduate intern in the Department of Objects Conservation. Olav has completed internships at the Yale University Art Gallery, the Midwest Art Conservation Center, and the Technical Museum of East Iceland where he assisted in their recovery efforts following a series of landslides. Olav received an MS in art conservation from the Winterthur/University of Delaware Program in Art Conservation in 2023. He has a BA in history and studio art from Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin.

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Linda Borsch

Conservator

Linda Borsch is responsible for the technical examination and treatment of medieval metalwork, European bronzes, and American metal and stone sculpture. Linda holds a master’s degree in art conservation from Queen’s University, Canada, and completed internships  in medieval art at The Met, in the furniture lab at the Canadian Conservation Institute in Ottawa, and in the archaeological and decorative metals lab at the Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg. Linda was awarded a two-year fellowship at The Met, during which she focused on medieval art. She worked for ten years on the reinstallation of the Greek and Roman collection before assuming her current responsibilities for European and American art in 2001, which expanded to include medieval art in 2016.

Selected Publications

Linda Borsch, Federico Carò and Mark T. Wypyski. “Technical Analysis of the Aldobrandini Tazze.” In The Silver Caesars: A Renaissance Mystery, edited by Julia Siemon, 158–68, 206–7. New York: MMA, 2017.

Linda Borsch and Federico Carò. “Technical Notes.” In “Abraham Lincoln: The Man (Standing Lincoln): A Bronze Statuette by Augustus Saint-Gaudens,” by Thayer Tolles. Metropolitan Museum Journal 48 (2013): 234–35.

Frantz, Tony Frantz, Dorothy H. Abramitis, Linda Borsch, and Mark T. Wypyski. “Roman Variscite Beads: In Situ Analysis by X-ray Microdiffraction.” The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 67, no. 1 (Summer 2009): 20–25.



Headshot of Nancy Britton

Nancy Britton

Conservator Emerita

Nancy Britton has worked since 1991 with upholstered works of art across four curatorial departments holding over 500 upholstered objects, including the Department of European Sculpture and Decorative Arts and The American Wing. Responsible for all textiles in a frame, she has conserved hundreds of artworks, caned chairs, fire screens, and tapestry upholstery, including an English state bed, Marie Antoinette’s Sené suite, and Dutch leather wall hangings. With over twenty publications to her credit, her scholarly interests include historic upholstery materials and upholstery techniques in Europe and America. Nancy works with modern artisans to bring accurate reproductions of original show covers to the Museum’s collection while preserving original elements.

Selected Publications

Britton, Nancy, Ann-Sofie Stjernlof, and Catherine Stephens. “Digitally Created Katagami Stencils for Printing Textile Infills.” In Embellished Fabrics: Conserving Surface Manipulation and Decoration; 11th North American Textile Conservation Conference, edited by Howard Sutcliffe and Joel Thompson, 181–95. Mexico City: Escuela Nacional de Conservacion, Restauracion y Museografia “Manuel del Castillo Negrete” (ENCRyM), INAH, and Secretaria de Cultura, 2018. CD-ROM.

Britton, Nancy, with Mark Anderson. “The Evolution of American Upholstery Techniques.” In The Forgotten History, Upholstery Conservation, edited by Karen Lohm, 30–80. Linköping, Sweden: Linköping University, 2011.

Britton, Nancy. “Stitches in Time: The Integration of 18th- and 21st-Century Technologies and Techniques across Three Cultures.” In Preprints of the 8th North American Textile Conservation Conference: Plying the Trades: Pulling Together in the 21st Century, Oaxaca, Mexico, November 8–11, 2011, 181-95. Madison, WI: Omnipress, 2011. CD-ROM.


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Amanda Chau

Associate Conservator

Amanda Chau rejoined The Met in 2021 as Assistant Conservator for the Michael C. Rockefeller Wing renovation which includes the conservation of the Michael C. Rockefeller Wing collection. She was previously at The Met as the 2015–2016 Sherman Fairchild Center Conservation Fellow specializing in stained-glass conservation, and she held both graduate and pre-program internships there. Prior to returning to The Met in 2021, Amanda worked at the American Museum of Natural History for the renovation of the Northwest Coast Hall and was also the Andrew W. Mellon Fellow at Worcester Art Museum focusing on stained-glass, Asian art, and contemporary art. She received an MA and CAS in art conservation from SUNY Buffalo State.

Selected Publications

Chau, Amanda, Amy Tjiong, Judith Levinson, Samantha Alderson, Gabrielle Tieu, Tommy Joseph, Jeanne Brako, and Jack Townes. “Tlingit Strong Suits: The Collaborative Treatment and Mounting of Tlingit Armor at the American Museum of Natural History.” In Objects Specialty Group Postprints, Volume Twenty-Eight, 2021. Washington, D.C.: American Institute for Conservation (in press).

Chau, Amanda, and Drew Anderson. “The Sharp End of Conservation: The Reintroduction of Paint to a Mid-Nineteenth Century Stained-Glass Window.” In Stained glass: Art at the Surface: Creation, Recognition, Conservation: Transactions of the 10th Forum for the Conservation and Technology of Stained Glass, Cambridge, 3–5 September, 2017. International Scientific Committee for the Conservation of Stained Glass, 2017.

Chau, Amanda. “The Conservation of ‘An Episode of the Legend of the Seven Sleepers’ Medieval Stained Glass Panel from Rouen Cathedral.” Vidimus 109 (2017).


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Johnny Coast

Conservation Preparator

Johnny Coast re-joined The Met in March, 2022. He was trained as a mount maker at the Guggenheim (2013) and has worked as a freelance mount maker for the Museum of Arts and Design (head mount maker), Bard, AMNH, The Met (Musical Instruments in 2018; British Galleries in 2020) and a handful of galleries, private collections, and conservators over the years. Johnny has taken machining and precision measuring courses at City Tech in Brooklyn and received brazing certifications from the United Bicycle Institute (UBI) and the Yamaguchi Frame Building School. Johnny maintains a shop space where he has made mounts for artists, museums, and galleries since 2006. He has made custom bicycle frames since 2004, when he was certified as a bicycle frame maker in silver brazed lugged construction at UBI.

Headshot of Matthew Cumbie

Matthew Cumbie

Conservation Preparator

Matthew Cumbie joined The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Department of Objects  Conservation in 2006. Before working at the Met, Matthew worked for 4 years as a studio assistant for a painter/sculptor. Matthew received a BFA in Illustration from The Rhode Island School of Design.  

Headshot of Pete Dandridge

Pete Dandridge

Conservator Emeritus

Pete Dandridge came to the Museum in 1979 from the Cooperstown Graduate Program. Initially focusing on the Rockefeller Collection, he became the principal conservator of the ivories, enamels, and metalwork in the Department of Medieval Art and The Cloisters, where his primary interest has been to elucidate the technical history of said materials and the capabilities of the artists who manipulated them. He is coediting Medieval Copper, Bronze and Brass with Nicolas Thomas, and is participating in CAST:ING, an international initiative to create an online publication of best practices for documenting the technical history of bronze casting.

Selected Publications

Dandridge, Pete, and Lisa Ellis. “Workshop Practices.” In Small Wonders: Late-Gothic Boxwood Micro-Carvings from the Low Countries, edited by Frits Scholten, 514–77. Amsterdam: Rijksmuseum Publications Department, 2016.

Dandridge, Pete. “Exquisite Objects, Prodigious Technique: Aquamanilia, Vessels of the Middle Ages.” In Lions, Dragons, and Other Beasts: Aquamanilia of the Middle Ages, Vessels for Church and Table, edited by Peter Barnet and Pete Dandridge, 34–56. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006.

Dandridge, Pete. “A Study of the Gilding of Silver in Byzantium.” In Gilded Metals: History, Technology and Conservation, edited by Terry Drayman-Weisser, 123–43. London: Archetype Publications, 2000.


Andy Estep

Andy Estep

Associate Conservation Preparator

Andy Estep came to the Department of Objects Conservation in 2017 for the Musical Instruments Gallery renovation. He joined the department in 2019. Before coming to The Met, Andy was a prop builder for theater, television, and advertising, as well as a scenic designer for theater and for large-scale retail window displays. Andy also worked as a mount maker at the American Museum of Natural History during the Irma and Paul Milstein Family Hall of Ocean Life restoration. He earned a BFA in sculpture from the Rhode Island School of Design and an MFA in visual arts from the UC San Diego.

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Alice Fornari

Assistant Manager for Technical Documentation

Alice Fornari began working as the documentation manager for Objects Conservation in 2022. Her responsibilities include maintaining the department’s digital and physical archives, photo studio, and creating and enforcing documentation standards. She has worked primarily in natural history collections, focusing on their digital and physical preservation since 2012. Alice received a BS in ecology and evolutionary biology from the University of Rochester in 2016, and a MA in museum studies from the University of San Francisco in 2018. She has worked with collections at NYBG, the California Academy of Sciences, as well as at AMNH. She most recently worked at the Smithsonian’s NMNH where she worked on curating, digitizing, and databasing all specimen types housed in the collections.

Selected Publications

Fornari, Alice, Jacob Montz, and Christopher Grinter. “Entomology Backlog Flats Digitization Project.” Poster presented at the Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections annual meeting, Chicago, Illinois, 2019.

Ahern, Kasia, Alice Fornari, and Molly Kamph. “The Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History’s Collections Histories for Accountability and Transparency (CHAT) Project.” Poster presented at Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections annual meeting, San Francisco, California, 2023, and at the Inclusive Museum Conference, 2022.

Busack, Stephen D., Alice Fornari, and Lisa Yow-Ferguson. “Historical Accident Drives: Eco-evolutionary Dynamics for Natural Selection in Psammodromus algirus (Lacertidae:Gallotiinae) and Acanthodactylus erythrurus (Lacertidae: lacertinae).” Journal of Herpetology (forthcoming 2023).

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Manu Frederickx

Conservator

Manu Frederickx is responsible for the conservation and technical study of The Met’s Musical Instruments collection. He received an MFA in musical instrument making from the Royal Conservatory in Ghent in 2002 and has worked as an independent maker-restorer of harpsichords and plucked string instruments. Manu studied conservation of wooden artifacts at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp. From 2004 to 2015 he was a lecturer at University College Ghent’s School of Arts, where he became head of the Musical Instrument Making Department in 2013. He worked as a conservator at the Brussels Musical Instrument Museum from 2009 until joining the Department of Objects Conservation in 2015. He is currently conducting a PhD study on the construction of Antwerp virginals at Ghent University.

Selected Publications

Schnitker, Jennifer, and Manu Frederickx, “Treatment of the Appleton Organ at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.” In Wooden Artifacts Group Postprints. Presentations from the 2017 AIC Annual Meeting in Chicago, Illinois, compiled by Genevieve Bieniosek, Andrew Fearon, Rian M.H. Deurenberg-Wilkinson, 101–109. Washington, D.C: American Institute for Conservation of Artistic and Historic Works, 2017.

Van den Bulcke, Jan, Denis Van Loo, Manuel Dierick, Bert Masschaele, Matthieu Boone, Kristof Haneca, Koen Deforce, Luc Van Hoorebeke, Hans Beeckman, Manu Frederickx, Valerio Lorenzoni, and Joris Van Acker “Looking Inside Valuable Wooden Objects with X-ray CT @ UGCT.” In Book of Abstracts: InArt 2016, edited by Peter Vandenabeele. Ghent: Ghent University, 2016.

Egan, Simon, Manu Frederickx, Livine Huart, Dr. Pascale Vandervellen, “Comparative Study Of Ruckers Instruments.” In COST Action FP1302 Multidisciplinary Approach to Wooden Musical Instrument Identification. Meeting Abstracts. Cremona, Italy, 2014.


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Tamar Ghvinianidze

Assistant Administrator

Tamar Ghvinianidze joined the Department of Objects Conservation in August of 2022. Along with the Senior Manager of Administration and Operations, Tamar manages the legal release process for conservation work. She also oversees recordkeeping and the professional development travel allotment for the department. Prior to joining Objects Conservation, Tamar worked in Visitor Experience as a recruiting coordinator. Tamar holds a BA in art history.

Headshot of Jacob Goble

Jacob Goble

Associate Conservation Preparator

Jacob Goble joined The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Department of Objects Conservation in 2014 after serving as senior departmental technician in the Museum's Department of European Sculpture and Decorative Arts. Before joining the Museum, Goble worked as a timber framer in Vermont and, more recently, as an adjunct professor of painting in New York. Goble received an MFA in painting from the Rhode Island School of Design and holds a BFA in painting and drawing from the State University of New York at New Paltz.

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Anne Grady

Conservator

Anne Grady is responsible for post-Renaissance European and American decorative arts. Anne officially joined the Museum in 2016, but has regularly worked on capital projects in the Department of Objects Conservation since 2008, when she was a Sherman Fairchild Conservation Fellow. Prior to that, Anne was a staff member of the Museum of Modern Art and a fellow at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, where she worked on a wide range of sculpture and design objects. She received her BA from Oberlin College and an MA in art conservation from Buffalo State College.

Selected Publications

Grady, Anne, and Jennifer Hickey. “Treatment of Izhar Patkin's The Black Paintings—Collaboration and Compromise.” In The AIC Paintings Specialty Group Postprints, Volume Twenty-Five, 2012, edited by Barbara Buckley, 24–30. Washington, D.C.: American Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works, 2015.






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Ameya Grant

Assistant Conservator

Ameya Grant joined the conservation team responsible for the renovation of the Ancient Near East and Cypriot galleries in 2023. Prior to this, she was a graduate intern in Objects Conservation at The Met. Ameya holds a BS in chemistry with a minor in art history from the State University of New York at New Paltz, and a dual MS/MA degree in conservation and art history from the New York University Institute of Fine Arts Conservation Center. She has completed pre-program and graduate internships at The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the National Park Service Harper’s Ferry Center; she has also conducted archaeological fieldwork in Turkey and Egypt. Throughout her professional journey, Ameya has pursued training in the treatment of decorative arts and inorganic archaeological objects.

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Rachel Greenberg

Conservator

Rachel Greenberg joined the Department of Objects Conservation in 2023 for the renovation of the Ancient Near East and Cypriot Galleries. Rachel holds an MA in classical art and archaeology and an MA/MSc in conservation for archaeology and museums from University College London. She has worked as a conservator at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C.; the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum in New York; the British Museum in London; and the Çatalhöyük Research Project Excavation in Turkey. Rachel is a professional associate of the American Institute of Conservation and serves as the president for the Washington Conservation Guild, an educational forum for conservators in Washington, D.C.

Selected Publications

Girod Holt, Jayne, Rachel Greenberg, and Anne Kingery-Shwartz. A Local Approach to the Global Problems of 2020: The Washington Conservation Guild and its Responses to the Black Lives Matter Movement and COVID-19.” Presented at the General Opening Session of the American Institute of Conservation’s 49th Annual Meeting, held virtually, May 2021.

Greenberg, Rachel and Lisa Young. “Destination Moon: Conserving Apollo Era Artifacts for Display.” In Preserving the Race for Space: Small Steps and Giant Leaps. National Center for Preservation Technology and Training (forthcoming).

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Christina Hagelskamp

Conservator

Christina Hagelskamp joined the Museum permanently in 2017, and is primarily responsible for the study and treatment of the lacquer collection in the Department of Asian Art. After graduating the University of Applied Science in Potsdam, Germany in 2007, with a focus on the conservation of wooden artifacts, Christina has specialized in the material aspects of Asian and European lacquer and held multiple contract positions at the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam and The Met. Past research and treatments have focused on Japanese export lacquer, as well as on European furniture and interiors with incorporated Asian lacquer elements. One recent project is the treatment of a prized work in the collection of the Department of Asian Art, a Chinese Tang dynasty dry-lacquer Buddha (09.6a-l).

Selected Publications

Hausdorf, Daniel, Joseph Hutchins, and Christina Hagelskamp. “Hold Tight! Innovative Shimbari Systems for the Stabilization of Surfaces”. In Transcending Boundaries: Integrated Approaches to Conservation. ICOM-CC 19th Triennial Conference Preprints, Beijing, 17–21 May 2021, edited by J. Bridgland. Paris: International Council of Museums, 2021.

Hagelskamp, Christina. “Aspects of the Manufacture of Chinese Kuancai Lacquer Screens.” In Postprints of the Wooden Artifacts Group, 25–35. Washington, D.C.: The American Institute for Conservation of Historic & Artistic Works, 2016.

Hagelskamp, Christina, Arlen Heginbotham, and Paul van Duin. “Bending Asian Lacquer in Eighteenth-Century Paris: New Discoveries.” Studies in Conservation 61, supplement 3 (December 2016): 91–96.


Headshot of Ann Heywood

Ann Heywood

Conservator Emerita

Ann Heywood was formerly the principal conservator for the Egyptian collection. In that role, she worked closely with the curators in the Department of Egyptian Art on all new acquisitions and gifts, outgoing and incoming loans, gallery conditions, special exhibitions, permanent gallery installations, and materials and technology research. Her own research has focused on the pigments of ancient Egypt. She joined the Department of Objects Conservation in 1988 after graduate work in art history and conservation at the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University. As conservator emerita since 2016, she contributes technical notes to the Museum’s online catalogue.

Selected Publications

Heywood, Ann. “Lead Cladding on a Wooden Royal Figure: An Unusual Ancient Surface Reconstructed.” In Decorated Surfaces on Ancient Egyptian Objects: Technology, Deterioration and Conservation, edited by C. Rozeik, J. Dawson, and M. Wright, 9–15. Cambridge: Fitzwilliam Museum: University of Cambridge, 2010.

Heywood, Ann. “Evidence for the Use of Azurite and Natural Ultramarine Pigments in Ancient Egypt.” Metropolitan Museum Studies in Art, Science, and Technology 1 (2010): 73–81.

Heywood, Ann. “The Use of Huntite as a White Pigment in Ancient Egypt.” In Colour and Painting in Ancient Egypt, edited by W. V. Davies, 5–9. London: British Museum Press, 2001.


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Ellen Howe

Conservator Emerita

Ellen Howe was responsible for objects in The Michael C. Rockefeller Wing. Her work entailed the conservation of both ethnographic and archaeological materials, with a specialty in the technology of works from the Americas and West/Central Africa. Ellen joined the department in 1980, having received an MA and certificate of advanced study in art conservation from the SUNY Cooperstown Graduate Program and a BA in studio art and art history from Smith College. At present she is developing essays for the Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History on African metals and resins and participating in the study and publication of the Museum’s North Coast Peruvian metalwork.

Selected Publications

Harrison, Ainslie and Ellen Howe. “Evidence of Soldering Technology on Pre-Columbian Gold Pendants from Western and North-Western Colombia.” Archaeometry 59, no. 5 (Oct. 2017): 874–90.

Howe, Ellen G. “Fon Silver Jewelry of the Twentieth Century.” Met Objectives 1, no. 2 (Spring 2000): 4–5, 8.

Howe, Ellen G., and Ulrich Petersen. “Silver and Lead in the Late Prehistory of the Mantaro Valley, Peru.” In Archaeometry of Pre-Columbian Sites and Artifacts: Proceedings of a Symposium Organized by the UCLA Institute of Archaeology and the Getty Conservation Institute, Los Angeles, California, March 23–27, 1992, edited by David A. Scott and Pieter Meyers, 183–98. Marina Del Rey: Getty Conservation Institute, 1994.


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Keelia Jacobs

Senior Manager, Administration and Operations

Keelia Jacobs manages the administration and operations of the Department of Objects Conservation. She oversees the department’s fiscal activities, coordinates events for departmental donor and advisory groups, and manages personnel administration.  Before coming to The Met, she worked in client-facing roles at galleries and an auction house. Keelia earned her BA in art history from Davidson College.

Headshot of Teresa Jimenez Millas

Teresa Jiménez-Millas

Associate Conservator

Teresa Jiménez-Millas joined The Met in 2022 to work on the renovation of the Michael C. Rockefeller Wing. Teresa earned a BA in art history from Universidad Complutense and a master’s degree in objects conservation from the School for Conservation of Cultural Heritage in Madrid, Spain. She has worked for museums and private practices in Philadelphia, Hawaii, and San Francisco. She also has worked on archeological sites in Crete and in the Peloponnese in Greece.

Selected Publications

Jiménez-Millas, Teresa. “Family Business: Della Robbia’s Renaissance Workshop.” How Things Are Made (blog), Legion of Honor, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, February 24, 2022. https://legionofhonor.famsf.org/Della-Robbia-Renaissance-Workshop.


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Marina Kastan

Associate Conservator
Marina Kastan is responsible for the conservation of leather and upholstered artworks in several curatorial departments, notably the American Wing and European Sculpture and Decorative Arts. Her research focuses are wide ranging, linked by an interest in complex, composite objects that are at once aesthetic and functional. One ongoing area of study is the degradation and conservation of mineral-tanned leather. Before joining Objects Conservation in 2023, Marina was a textile conservator at the North Carolina Museum of History and completed fellowships at the Denver Art Museum and The Met’s Costume Institute. She completed her graduate training in conservation at the Fashion Institute of Technology. Marina also holds an MA in library science from Pratt Institute.
Selected Publications

Kastan, Marina, Kaelyn Garcia, and Sarah Scaturro. “Fashion's Plastics Problem: Preventive Conservation for Synthetic Materials.” Presented at the American Institute for Conservation’s 48th Annual Meeting, held virtually, 25 June 2020.

Kastan, Marina. “Leather Dressing: The Conservation of Leather and Fur in Fashion.” In Proceedings of the 11th Interim Meeting of the ICOM-CC Leather and Related Materials Working Group, Paris, France, 6–7 June 2019, edited by Laurianne Robinet, 51–57. N.P.: International Council of Museums Committee for Conservation, 2020.

Kastan, Marina. “Confronting Challenges and Considering Consensus in the Conservation of 18th-Century Fashion.” In Textile Specialty Group Postprints, Vol. 28: Papers Delivered at the Textile Subgroup Session of the American Institute for Conservation’s 46th Annual Meeting, Houston, TX, 29 May–3 June 2018, edited by Kira Eng-Wilmot, 31–48. Washington, D.C.: American Institute for Conservation, 2019.

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Lucretia Kargère

Conservator

Lucretia  Kargère is Conservator for Medieval sculptures at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. She has been the principal conservator for The Met Cloisters since 2002. She came to The Met in 1996, when she was awarded the first of several fellowships for the technical study and treatment of medieval sculpture. Lucretia has published a significant study of French Romanesque sculptures from the Museum collection, and is the co-author of The Conservation of Medieval Polychrome Wood Sculpture (Getty Publications 2020). She holds a BA from Brown University, and an MA in art history and advanced certificate in conservation from the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University.

Selected Publications

Marincola, Michele D., and Lucretia Kargère. The Conservation of Medieval Polychrome Wood Sculpture: History, Theory, Practice. Los Angeles: Getty Conservation Institute, 2020.

Kargère, Lucretia, Pierre-Yves Le Pogam, Juliette Lévy-Hinstin, and Nathalie Pingaud. “Un Christ roman auvergnatretrouve son unitégrâce à l'étude de la polychromie.” Technè 39 (2014): 60–65.

Kargère, Lucretia, and Adriana Rizzo. “Twelfth-Century French Polychrome Sculpture in The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Materials and Techniques.” Metropolitan Museum Studies in Art, Science, and Technology 1 (2010): 39–72.


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Dawn Kriss

Associate Conservator

Dawn Kriss is responsible for the care and study of Indigenous works of art from the Americas and Oceania. She has held contract positions at the Brooklyn Museum and the American Museum of Natural History and teaches as a guest lecturer in conservation at the Institute of Fine Arts. Dawn has specialized in arts of the Americas throughout her career, working for several field seasons in Chile and Peru, including two years serving as Chief Conservator for the Vitor Valley Archaeological Project. Dawn was granted an MA in the conservation of archaeological and ethnographic materials by UCLA, where she also received an undergraduate degree in studio art with a minor in anthropology.

Selected Publications

Kriss, Dawn, Victoria Schussler, Elyse Driscoll, Lauren Bradley, Jessica Ford, Federica Pozzi, and Elena Basso. “Materials Characterization with Multiband Reflectance Imaging at the Brooklyn Museum: A New Tool for the Multiband Imaging Kit.” Journal of the American Institute for Conservation (2023). DOI: 10.1080/01971360.2023.2168430

Ikehara-Tsukayama, Hugo C., Dawn Kriss, and Joanne Pillsbury. “Containing the Divine: Ancient Peruvian Pots.“ The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 80, no. 4 (Spring, 2023).

Kriss, Dawn, Ellen Howe, Judith Levinson, Adriana Rizzo, Federico Carò, and Lisa DeLeonardis. “A Material and Technical Study of Paracas Painted Ceramics.” Antiquity 92, 366 (2018): 1492–1510. https://doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2018.164






Headshot of Jean-François de Lapérouse

Jean-François de Lapérouse

Conservator

Jean-François de Lapérouse has worked primarily with the Ancient Near Eastern and Islamic Art collections since joining the Museum staff in 1989. He is interested in examining  the impact of available materials and technologies on the formation of specific artistic forms and styles. He received a BA in art history at Princeton University and completed the coursework for a doctorate in Ancient Near Eastern art and archaeology at the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University, where he also received a certificate in conservation. He has participated as a conservator at archaeological sites in Turkey and Syria.

Selected Publications

Lapérouse, Jean-François de. “Early Mesopotamian Metallurgy.” In Encyclopaedia of the History of Science, Technology and Medicine in Non-Western Cultures, edited by Helaine Selin, 1624–34. 2nd ed. Berlin: Springer, 2008.

ResearchGate: Publications and presentations by Jean-François de Lapérouse

MetPublications: Selected essays and catalogue entries by Jean-François de Lapérouse


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Sara Levin

Associate Conservator

Sara Levin joined The Met in 2017 as a project conservator, focusing on the examination and treatment of decorative arts for the renovation of the British Galleries. She is now dedicated to the care and study of indigenous works from sub-Saharan Africa and Oceania. Sara received an MS in art conservation from the University of Delaware/Winterthur Museum, with a focus on archaeological artifacts. She previously held positions at the Brooklyn Museum, where she was lead conservator for the monumental Resurrection by Giovanni della Robbia, and at Abigail Mack Art Conservation, where she attended to a range of modern and contemporary sculpture. She has completed fellowships and internships at the Getty Villa, the University of Pennsylvania Museum, The Met, and the Israel Antiquities Authority.

Selected Publications

Levin, Sara, Nick Pedemonti, and Lisa Bruno. “Resurrecting Della Robbia’s Resurrection: Challenges in the Conservation of a Monumental Renaissance Relief.” In Objects Specialty Group Postprints, Volume Twenty-Four, 2017, edited by Kari Dodson and Emily Hamilton, with Tony Sigel, 388–412. Washington, DC: AIC, 2019.

Bruno, Lisa, Sara Levin, and Nick Pedemonti. “Giovanni della Robbia’s Resurrection of Christ; Conserving a Monumental Renaissance Relief.” In Da Brooklyn al Bargello; Giovanni della Robbia, la Lunetta Antinori e Stefano Arienti, edited by Ilaria Ciseri, 82–97. Genoa: Sagep Editori, 2017.

De Alarcón, Tessa, and Sara Levin. “Conservation Fellows Evaluate Cypriot Artifacts.” Expedition 56, no. 3 (Winter 2014): 45–47.



Laila Lott

Assistant Conservation Preparator

Headshot of Marijn Manuels

Marijn Manuels

Conservator

Marijn Manuels received his training in Amsterdam and joined Objects Conservation in 1996. For many years he has been responsible for the care, examination, and treatment of The American Wing’s collection of interiors, furniture, and wooden objects. Past projects include exhibitions such as Honoré Lannuier (1998), Art and the Empire City (2000), John Townsend (2005), Louis Comfort Tiffany and Laurelton Hall (2006), and Duncan Phyfe (2011), as well as the 10-year reinstallation of The American Wing’s galleries and period rooms, completed in 2011. More recently, Marijn guided the installation of the Worsham-Rockefeller dressing room, and worked extensively on the exhibition Artistic Furniture of the Gilded Age (2015), which introduced Schastey’s work to a broader audience.

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William Mastandrea

Assistant Conservator

William (Bill) Mastandrea joined the conservation team responsible for the renovation of the Ancient Near Eastern and Cypriot Galleries in 2023. Prior to joining The Met, Bill was the inaugural Gale R. Guild and Henry R. Guild Fellow for Advanced Training in Objects Conservation at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston from 2021–2023. For two seasons, he served as the lead project conservator for the PARAMa archaeological fieldwork project in the Peruvian Andes. In 2021, he completed his graduate conservation internship at the Horniman Museum in London. Bill received BA and MA degrees in Near Eastern and Mediterranean archaeology at Lycoming College and Cornell University, respectively. He also holds a joint MA/MSc in conservation for archaeology and museums from University College London.

Selected Publications

Mastandrea, William, Kate Clive-Powell, Evelyn (Eve) Mayberger, Richard Newman, Lawrence Berman, and Daniel Kirby. “Between the Linen and the Overpaint: Understanding Materials and Techniques Used on Two Romano-Egyptian Funerary Portrait Shrouds.” In Mummy Portraits of Roman Egypt: Emerging Research from the APPEAR Project Volume 2, edited by Marie Svoboda and Caroline R Cartwright. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Trust (forthcoming).

Mastandrea, William. “Honoring the Sacred: Ethical Conservation Practice Concerning the Treatment of Buddhist Sacred Objects.” Poster presented in the Objects from Indigenous and World Cultures Working Group, ICOM-CC 19th Triennial Conference, Beijing, 17–21 May 2021.


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Lesley Mirling

Associate Conservator

Lesley Mirling joined the conservation team for the renovation of the Modern and Contemporary Art galleries in 2023. She began her conservation training as a pre-program intern in the Department of Objects Conservation at The Met and later completed internships at the Institute for the Study of Aegean Prehistory, East Crete; the Hibulb Cultural Center in Tulalip, Washington; and the American Museum of Natural History in New York. Lesley was a Samuel H. Kress Conservation Fellow at the Shelburne Museum in Vermont, and before returning to The Met, she was an assistant conservator of objects at the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. Lesley is a graduate of the UCLA/Getty master’s program in the conservation of cultural heritage and received a BA in studio art from Bennington College.

Selected Publications

Day (Mirling), Lesley, Ellen Pearlstein, and J. Claire Dean. “A Pole with a Story: Innovative Conservation and Documentation of an American Indian Story Pole.” Paper presented at the General Session of AIC’s 45th Annual Meeting, Chicago, IL, May 2017.

Day (Mirling), Lesley. “Conservation of a Shapra Headdress,” in The Conservation of Featherwork from Central and South America, edited by Ellen Pearlstein, 59–74. London: Archetype, 2017.

Tijong, Amy, Judith Levinson, Samantha Alderson, Gabrielle Tieu, Jessica Pace, Lesley Day (Mirling). “Tissue Issues: Reconsidering Winter Gut.” Paper presented in Objects from Indigenous and World Cultures Working Group at ICOM-CC 18th Triennial Conference, Copenhagen, Denmark, September 2017.


Headshot of Vicki Parry

Vicki Parry

Conservator

Vicki Parry joined The Met in 2002 and has since worked on two of the Museum’s largest gallery reinstallation projects in recent years: the Greek and Roman galleries, and the New Galleries for the Art of the Arab Lands, Turkey, Iran, Central Asia, and Later South Asia. Responsible for the conservation of all ceramics and stone objects in the Department of Asian Art, she also conserves decorative arts made from a variety of materials such as cloisonné enamel and amber. Vicki’s research interests include the spread of ceramic techniques and the development of glazes in times of political conflict and through trade.

Selected Publications

Parry, Vicki. “Nishapur Ceramics in the Metropolitan Museum of Art: 70 Years of Restoration Techniques.” In Greater Khorasan History, Geography, Archaeology and Material Culture, edited by Rocco Rante, 151–60. Studies in the History and Culture of the Middle East 29. Boston: de Gruyter, 2015.

Lapérouse, Jean-François de, Stefan Heidemann, and Vicki Parry. “The Large Audience: Life-Sized Stucco Figures of Royal Princes from the Seljuq Period.” Muqarnas 31 (2014): 35–71.

Lapérouse, Jean-François de, Karen Stamm, and Vicki Parry. “Re-examination and Treatment of Mina’i Ceramics at The Metropolitan Museum of Art.” In Glass and Ceramics Conservation 2007: Preprints of the Interim Meeting of the ICOM-CC Working Group, August 27–30, 2007, Nova Gorica, Slovenia, edited by Lisa Pilosi, 112–19. Nova Gorica, Slovenia: Goriški Muzej Nova Gorica, 2007.



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Pascale Patris

Conservator

Pascale Patris joined the Department of Objects Conservation in 1994. Her main responsibilities include the research and treatment of painted and gilded wood surfaces of decorative arts from medieval Europe, through the Italian Renaissance and Baroque, to the 19th-century Gilded Age in America. Pascale received her training in conservation in Paris, where she focused primarily on European sculpture. Prior to that, she studied fine arts. Since joining the Museum, Pascale has expanded her expertise in the study and analytical interpretation of surface finishes for European and American decorative arts and sculpture with a personal interest in the surface finishes of Asian sculpture.

Selected Publications

Patris, Pascale. “Recreating the Context of the Met Side Table”. Furniture History Society Newsletter 218 (May 2020): 2–7.

Patris, Pascale. “Decorative Surface Finishes: Bronzing, Patina-Antiqua, Vert-Antique in NY Furniture 1810-1830: New York Workshops Practices 1810-1830.” Color Research and Application 41, no.3 (June 2016): 232–40.

Patris, Pascale, and Rizzo, Adriana. “An Unfolding Tale: The Making and Transforming of the Golden Harpsichord.” Journal of the American Musical Instrument Society 39 (2013): 62–88.



Carolyn Riccardelli, a light-skinned woman with short dark blonde hair

Carolyn Riccardelli

Conservator

Carolyn Riccardelli specializes in structural issues related to large-scale objects. From 2005 to 2014 she was the principal member of a team of conservators and scientists working on Tullio Lombardo’s Adam, conducting research on adhesives and pinning materials, and developing innovative methods for reassembling the damaged marble sculpture. Carolyn is one of the primary coordinators of graduate interns in the Department of Objects Conservation and one of the leaders of the Museum’s collections emergency preparedness program. She holds a BA in anthropology from Newcomb College at Tulane University, and an MA in art conservation from Buffalo State College.

Selected Publications

Riccardelli, Carolyn, Beth Edelstein, and Dorothy H. Abramitis. “Reinstallation of a Roman Mosaic at The Metropolitan Museum of Art.” In What Comes to Mind When You Hear Mosaic? Conserving Mosaics from Ancient to Modern. The 13th conference of the International Committee for the Conservation of Mosaics. Barcelona 15–20 October 2017, edited by Roberto Nardo and Montserrat Pugès i Dorca, 221–234. Florence: EDIFIR-Edizioni, 2021.

Walker, Wendy, and Riccardelli, Carolyn. “Workshop Practice Revealed by Two Architectural Reliefs by Andrea della Robbia.” Metropolitan Museum Journal 54 (2019): 47–61.

Riccardelli, Carolyn, Jack Soultanian, Michael Morris, Lawrence Becker, George Wheeler, and Ron Street. “The Treatment of Tullio Lombardo’s Adam: A New Approach to the Conservation of Monumental Marble Sculpture.” Metropolitan Museum Journal 49 (2014): 49–116.


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Kendra Roth

Conservator

Kendra Roth is responsible for sculpture and decorative arts in the Department of Modern and Contemporary Art’s collection—a role she has held since 2007, after spending 10 years participating in the reinstallation of the Greek and Roman galleries. She serves as assistant coordinator for the Modern Materials and Contemporary Art working group of ICOM-CC and in the Conservation Advisory Group for the Public Design Commission of the City of New York. Kendra joined the Museum in 1997, after completing graduate work in art conservation at the State University of New York at Buffalo and the Straus Center for Conservation at Harvard University.

Selected Publications

Rivenc, Rachel, and Kendra Roth, eds. Living Matter: The Preservation of Biological Materials Used in Contemporary Art, Proceedings of An International Conference Held in Mexico City, June 3–5, 2019. Los Angeles, CA: Getty Conservation Institute. 2022.

Ng, Jesse, Deepa Paulus, and Kendra Roth. “To Build a Palace: The Digital Documentation of Louise Nevelson’s ‘Mrs. N’s Palace.’” In MoK (Meddelelser om Konservering) 1 (December 2020): 23–36.

Roth, Kendra, and Daniel Hausdorf. “Capturing the State of Preservation: A PDF-based Survey Method for Surveying Plastics at The Metropolitan Museum of Art.” In Future Talks 2017, The Silver Edition. Visions. Innovations in Technology and Conservation of the Modern, October 11/13/2017, Die Neue Sammlung, The Design Museum. Munich: Die Neue Sammlung, The Design Museum, 2019.



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Lindsay Rowinski

Assistant Conservation Preparator

Lindsay Rowinski joined the Objects Conservation Department in 2021 for the renovation of the Michael C. Rockefeller Wing. Prior to coming to The Met, Lindsay worked for the Smithsonian National Postal Museum where she encapsulated thousands of stamps and postal ephemera for the opening of the William H. Gross Stamp Gallery in Washington, D.C. After moving to New Orleans in 2013, Lindsay worked for the Notarial Archives on a FEMA project to conserve land records that were damaged in Hurricane Katrina. She then pursued a career in woodworking and building techniques, building escape rooms and fabricating sets for theater companies around New Orleans. Lindsay most recently worked for the Historic New Orleans Collection where she was a preparator specializing in mount making.

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Frederick Sager

Managing Conservation Preparator

Frederick Sager began work at The Met in 1980 preparing architectural elements for period room installations in the American Wing. Following this, he restored two stone chimneypieces in the French galleries. From 1990 to 1995, he was a wood restorer in the five-year conservation treatment and installation of the Studiolo from the Ducal Palace in Gubbio . Since 1996, he has been a conservation preparator and is currently the managing conservation preparator in the department, where his responsibilities include mount making, art installation, and the supervision of a four-person team.

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David Sastre

Associate Manager of Laboratory

After obtaining a degree in biology, David worked for Instituto Nacional de Salud in Bogota and Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York where he focused on scientific research. Since 2011, David has managed the Objects Conservation laboratories at The Met. In this role, David oversees lab operations and safety, equipment acquisition and maintenance, permit renewal, and chemical management. David is researching the reconditioning of silica gel to improve the environmental conditions of objects. David also plays an active role in the photographic documentation of exhibitions, studio projects, and gallery renovations. His images have been presented in fundraising events and featured in a variety of sources including The New York Times, Art News, and the department’s Instagram.

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Jennifer Schnitker

Associate Conservator

Jennifer Schnitker is responsible for the study and treatment of Byzantine, Medieval, and Renaissance decorative arts, including gold and silversmith’s work, enamels, and ivories. Jennifer joined the Museum in 2016, first working on conservation for the renovation of the Musical Instrument galleries and treating a wide range of instruments from around the globe. After receiving her MSc in objects conservation from the Winterthur Museum/University of Delaware Program in Art Conservation, she was a Marshall Steel Fellow at the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, where she worked in the instrument conservation lab.

Selected Publications

Schnitker, Jennifer, and Manu Frederickx, “Treatment of the Appleton Organ at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.” In Wooden Artifacts Group Postprints. Presentations from the 2017 AIC Annual Meeting in Chicago, Illinois, compiled by Genevieve Bieniosek, Andrew Fearon, Rian M.H. Deurenberg-Wilkinson, 101–109. Washington, D.C: American Institute for Conservation of Artistic and Historic Works, 2017.


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Deborah Schorsch

Conservator Emerita

Deborah Schorsch received her graduate training in art history and conservation at NYU’s Institute of Fine Arts. Her professional focus is the technical study of metalwork and other materials from ancient Egypt. In close collaboration with the Museum’s Egyptian art curators, she has studied ritual statuary, jewelry, and utilitarian implements of gold, silver, bronze, and copper, documenting manufacturing processes and materials in order to define ancient technological styles. She has also lectured and published on ancient and ethnographic metalwork from the Near East, Peru, West Africa, Europe, and India, and on the history of conservation practice at The Met and has participated on excavations and conservation educational initiatives in North and South America, Africa, Europe, and Asia.

Selected Publications

Schorsch, Deborah. “Ritual Metal Statuary in Ancient Egypt: ‘A Long Life and a Great and Good Old Age.’” In Statues in Context: Production, Meaning and (Re)uses, edited by Aurelia Masson-Berghoff, 249–68. British Museum Publications on Egypt and Sudan. Peeters. Leuven, 2019.

Schorsch, Deborah, Lawrence Becker, and Federico Carò. “Enlightened Technology: Casting Divinity in the Gupta Age.” Arts of Asia 49, no. 2 (Mar–Apr 2019): 131–43.

MetPublications: Selected publications by Deborah Schorsch


Headshot of Anna Serotta

Anna Serotta

Conservator

Anna Serotta is primarily responsible for the conservation of the Egyptian Art collection. Her research interests span a broad range of topics, including stone carving technology, technical imaging and the mitigation of vibration-induced damage in the museum environment. In addition to her role in the museum, Anna has worked as an archaeological field conservator on sites in Turkey, Greece, Italy and Egypt, including at The Met’s excavation at Dahshur. Anna is a Fellow of the American Academy in Rome as well as a guest lecturer at the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University. Anna received her BA from Dartmouth College and her MA in art history and advanced certificate in art conservation from the Institute of Fine Arts Conservation Center at New York University.

Selected Publications

Serotta, Anna, Lisa Bruno and Yekaterina Barbash. “The Outer Coffin of Pa-seba-khai-en-ipet. New Insights on Manufacture, History and Treatment.” In Ancient Egyptian Coffins: Past, Present, Future, edited by Helen Strudwick and Julie Dawson, 35–42. Oxford: Oxbow Books, 2019.

Serotta, Anna, Julie Marie Siebert and Isabel Stünkel. “Paint Like An Egyptian!” MetKids (blog), The Metropolitan Museum of Art, July 20, 2020.

Smyth, Andrew, Patrick Brewick, Raphael Greenbaum, Manolis Chatzis, Anna Serotta, and Isabel Stünkel. “Vibration Mitigation and Monitoring: A Case Study of Construction in a Museum.” Journal of the American Institute for Conservation 55, no. 1 (2016): 32–55.


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Barbara Smith

Assistant Conservation Preparator

Barb Smith came to the Objects Conservation Department in 2022 to work on the renovation of the Michael C. Rockefeller Wing. Before joining The Met, she worked as an artist assistant and a professor of art. Barb earned her bachelor’s degree and a master of arts in photography and related media from Purdue University. Barb also holds a master of fine arts in metal from the State University of New York at New Paltz and a master of fine arts in sculpture from Bard College.

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Jack Soultanian

Conservator

Jack Soultanian specializes in the examination and treatment of European sculpture. He holds an MA in art history and an advanced certificate in conservation from the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University. Prior to his arrival at The Met in 1986, he held the position of chief conservator at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. He was for twenty-five years adjunct professor at New York University’s Conservation Center and acts as consultant conservator at Villa La Pietra, Sir Harold Acton’s Florence residence bequeathed to the University where, in addition to the care of the sculpture collections in the Villa, he continues student training.

Selected Publications

Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Lisbeth, and Jack Soultanian. Italian Medieval Sculpture in The Metropolitan Museum of Art and The Cloisters. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2010.

Riccardelli, Carolyn, Jack Soultanian, Michael Morris, Lawrence Becker, George Wheeler, and Ronald Street. “The Treatment of Tullio Lombardo’s Adam: A New Approach to the Conservation of Monumental Marble Sculpture.” Metropolitan Museum Journal 49 (2014): 49–116.

Soultanian, Jack, Antoine M. Wilmering, Mark D. Minor and Andrew Zawacki, “The Conservation of the Minbar from the Kutubiyya Mosque.” In The Minbar from the Kutubiyya Mosque. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art (1998): 67–84.






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Karen Stamm

Conservator

Karen Stamm is responsible for the technical examination and treatment of three-dimensional glass. She works across the Museum’s curatorial departments on objects dating from ancient to modern. Prior to her current responsibilities, Karen worked on a variety of materials as part of the reinstallations of the Greek and Roman Galleries and the Galleries for the Art of the Arab Lands, Turkey, Iran, Central Asia, and Later South Asia, and worked on Southeast Asian stone sculpture from the Asian Art Department. Before joining The Met in 1998, she worked as a conservator for several archaeological sites in the Mediterranean, including being a year-round staff member at the Athenian Agora. She trained in archaeological conservation at the Institute of Archaeology, University College London.

Selected Publications

Gridley, Rebecca, and Karen Stamm. “Using Double-walled PVC Foil Molds to Separately Cast Large Epoxy Resin Fills for Glass Objects.” In Recent Advances in Glass and Ceramics Conservation 2019: Interim Meeting of the ICOM-CC Working Group, September 5-7, 2019, London, England, edited by Janis Mandrus and Victoria Schussler, 101-110. London: ICOM, 2019.

Stamm, Karen, Gorazd Lemajič, and Lisa Pilosi. “Vacuum-Formed PVC Molds for Casting Resin Fills in Glass Objects.” In Recent Advances in Glass, Stained Glass, and Ceramics Conservation 2013, ICOM-CC Glass and Ceramics Working Group Interim Meeting and Forum of the International Scientific Committee for the Conservation of Stained Glass (Corpus Vitrearum-ICOMOS), edited by Hannelore Roemich and Kate van Lookeren Campagne, 69–75. Zwolle: SPA Uitgevers, 2013.

Pilosi, Lisa, Karen Stamm, and Mark T. Wypyski. “An Islamic Cameo Glass Fragment in The Metropolitan Museum of Art.” In Annales du 18e Congrès de l’Association Internationale pour l’Histoire du Verre, Thessaloniki, 2009, edited by Despina Ignatiadou and Anastassios Antonaras, 341–45. Thessaloniki: ZITI Publishing, 2012.

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Chantal Stein

Assistant Conservator

Chantal Stein is a project conservator for the renovation of The Michael C. Rockefeller Wing galleries. She first joined The Met in 2019, when she was awarded a fellowship focusing on archaeological materials from Egypt and the Ancient Near East. She has worked at various museums across NYC and on field excavations in Turkey and Egypt. She earned her MA in art history and MS in conservation from the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University, and her BA in fine arts and creative writing from Columbia University. Her research interests include technical imaging and values-based  approaches to conservation.

Selected Publications

McCann, Laura, Chantal Stein, Jessica Pace, Andrew Wolf, and Katherine Parks. “Legal and Ethical Considerations in the Conservation of Artwork Produced During Art Therapy.” Journal of the American Institute for Conservation (2021). DOI: 10.1080/01971360.2021.1927654

Frank, Emily, Sebastian Heath, and Chantal Stein. “Integration of Photogrammetry, Reflectance Transformation Imaging (RTI), and Multiband Imaging (MBI) for Visualization, Documentation, and Analysis of Archaeological and Related Materials.” ISAW Papers 21 (2021).

Stein, Chantal. “Medieval Naturalia: Identification, Iconography, and Iconology of Natural Objects in the Late Middle Ages.” Medievalista 29 (2021): 211-241.

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Wendy Walker

Conservator

Wendy is responsible for the examination and treatment of a wide range of ceramics including Greek terracottas, Italian Renaissance majolica, European porcelain, and early American pottery. After receiving her training at West Dean College in England, she worked at the British Museum and Victoria and Albert Museum and as site conservator on several excavations in the Mediterranean and Middle East. Wendy came to The Met in 1999.

Selected Publications

Walker, Wendy, and Riccardelli, Carolyn. “Workshop Practice Revealed by Two Architectural Reliefs by Andrea della Robbia.” Metropolitan Museum Journal 54 (2019): 47-61.



Marlene Yandrisevits

Associate Conservator

Marlene Yandrisevits has a focused interest in the science, craft, and care of metals in art and technology. At The Met, Marlene is primarily responsible for the study and treatment of metalwork and enamels in the Asian Art collections. Marlene has also served as a conservator working with the national collections of flight at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum and as a conservation fellow working with the Higgins Armory Collection at the Worcester Art Museum. 

Selected Publications

Yandrisevits, Marlene, Pablo Londero, Federico Carò, Adriana Rizzo, and Catarina  Cappuccini. “Wavelength-dependent Absorption and Scattering Effects on Laser Cleaning of a Corroded Iron Alloy European Scale Armor.” In Lasers in the Conservation of Artworks XI, Proceedings of the International Conference LACONA XI, Kraków, Poland, September 20–23, 2016, edited by Piotr Targowski, Małgorzata Walczak, and Paraskevi Pouli, 27–45. Toruń : NCU Press, 2017. DOI: 10.12775/3875-4.