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The CBC Conservazione Beni Culturali was founded in 1977 by a group of graduates from the internationally famous Istituto Centrale di Restauro, Rome, at a time when art conservation was being transformed from its artisanal roots into the rigorous modern discipline it is today.

Discover the team

Introduction:

During their training, they found the mixing of varied individual experience and skills so fruitful they decided to continue working as a group to maintain this collaborative energy. This inspiration still holds true today: the CBC brings together the skills of fourteen conservators and two administrative and logistical staff, so for major projects we have the resources to assemble highly specialised work squads, coordinated and led by senior staff with a vast range of expertise and experience.

Our head office and conservation studio in Rome is centrally located with good access. We also have a second office in Perugia, close to the Galleria Nazionale dell’Umbria – our links to this part of Italy date back to training worksites at the ICR and continue through the times of the devastating earthquakes at Assisi and the Valnerina (the Nera River Valley) to the present.
We work all over the Italian peninsula and training, project planning and hands-on work have also taken us to the Republic of Georgia, France, Holland, Libya, Turkey, the United States, Canada, Spain and China.

We treat works on canvas, wood, metal, stone, paper, stucco and glass of every historical period as well as wall paintings and monuments, archaeological sites and modern and contemporary artworks.
We often take on interns both from Italy and abroad, including students from the ISCR, OPD, as well as Academies and University training courses.

Our methods

We believe a conservation treatment is a unique opportunity to gain a detailed insight into a work of art, and careful study is an essential part of the treatment of major works. But even in the case of minor works, it often turns up useful and even surprising details.

Our treatment of a work is guided by what we know about it and what we know about the materials it is made from. And we are always looking to broaden that knowledge, through partnerships and collaborations with other conservators, historians, scientists and Italian and foreign research institutes and universities

So, at CBC we have always sought to accompany the steady honing of each conservators’ manual skills with regular input on technical developments in the field, from diagnostics to historical studies and materials analysis to innovative treatment methods.
Consequently, the Cooperative has always sought to maintain the highest professional ethical and legal standards, to appraise our business practices and to encourage exchange and collaboration with other professionals and specialists in the sector.

Certification:

Attestazione di qualificazione alla esecuzione dei lavori pubblici per la Categoria OS2A Classifica IV.

Certificato n. 3638/00/S del 04/08/2000, norme UNI EN ISO 9001:2015 

The members of the Cooperative CBC

We tell you about us

Currently the CBC is composed of 16 members who support both the technical part and the organizational and administrative management. For each of us we include some professional information, the role and the job within the group.

 

Board of directors CBC

Member since
1997

Angela Amendola

President of the Board of Directors since July 2017, Head of Corporate Planning, Worksite Manager. Director of Human Resources

She has managed high profile and complex projects for the group thanks to her notable organisational skills and expertise in human resources. Since 2004 she has worked on the Torre di Pisa, Tempio di Adriano in Rome, and the Cappella Gentilizia in Villa Simonetta in Milan. With Sabina Vedovello she conducted the treatment and maintenance programmes on Michelangelo’s Pietà Rondanini. She was worksite manager for the long and complex treatment on the Fontana di Trevi in Rome which concluded in 2015.

 

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Member since
1997

Caterina Barnaba

Vice President of the Board of Directors since July 2017. Commercial manager. Worksite manager.

Thanks to her organisational abilities she has directed several important commissions for the company, often in cooperation with other companies in temporary consortia. She was worksite manager on the Torre di Pisa from 2003 till work was completed in 2011 and managed the worksites for the decorative fittings and surfaces of the Chiesa dei Cappuccini in Rome, for the Domus of Venere in Conchiglia in Pompeii and the maintenance of excavations at Herculaneum.

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Member since
2010

Irene Zuliani

Member of the Board of Directors and Technical Director. Quality Manager since July 2017, Worksite manager.

She has worked on the treatment of the Roman sculptures in the Braccio Nuovo of the Vatican Museums, on the Torre di Pisa, on the Roman frescos of the Casa di Lorejo Tiburtino at Pompeii and the Veronese paintings in Chiesa di San Sebastiano, Venice. At present, she is managing the remounting and reconstruction of a Republican Roman burial chamber in stucco, from Quadraro near Rome. Frome 2014 to 2023 she was a Council Board member for the Italian Association of Conservators (ARI)

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Officers CBC

Member since
1986

Doretta Mazzeschi

Member since 1986, Worksite Manager, Responsible of Health and Safety.

Apart from managing worksites she has specialised in the handling of Health and Safety issues and the acquisition and maintenance of the Company’s equipment. She has worked on numerous projects including the Fontana di Trevi and Tempio di Adriano in Rome, the Sala delle Cariatidi in Milan and the Casa dei Vettii in Pompeii, where she co-authored a publication on the stratification of the plasters, while her most significant project was the 8-10th century underground Cripta del Peccato Originale in Matera.

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Member since
1993

Roberta Balducci

Member since 1993. Director of workers' safety. Office for Commercial and Production sectors.

Apart from secretarial tasks and support for commercial activities, she handles the administration of personnel and organisation of internal activities and provides logistical support to Worksite Managers. Updates costing and checks productivity of each active worksite.

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Member since
1991

Laura Vagaggini

Member since 1991, Head of Administration.

She oversees accounting and administrative support for the Commercial sector both for tenders and contracts. She has undertaken the further training courses on Administration, Finance and Management at the Luiss School of Management, Rome and the Masters from the Sole24 ORE “Art and Culture: strategies in marketing, communications and fundraising”.

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Conservatories and Restorers CBC

Member since
1995

Mark Gittins

Member since 1995, Worksite manager.

He has coordinated numerous projects including the pilot worksite on the Torre di Pisa, the Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi in Rome, the Sala della Volta Dorata at Domus Aurea in Rome and the frescos of Filippo Lippi in the Duomo di Prato. He has conducted training and conservation projects in Georgia, Libya and China. Since 2013 he has been working as consultant on a pilot/research worksite at Herculaneum with the Getty Conservation Institute. Since 2013 he has been teaching first stone then wall paintings conservation in the degree course in Conservation of Cultural Property at the Università della Tuscia. He was on the council of ARI from 1996 to 2000 and has been a member of ICOM since 2015.

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Member since
1998

Elena Mercanti

Member since 1998, Joint head of the Perugia office.

Working extensively in Umbria she has carried out complete treatments in particular on easel paintings including such significant works as the Croce Perkins, the Annunciazione by Taddeo di Bartolo di Mino, the Crocifissione by Nicolò di Buonaccorso, the Annunciazione, the Adorazione di Gesù, the Pietà and San Sebastiano by Gentile da Fabriano, L’incoronazione della Vergine by Vasari in Città di Castello and 15th Century paintings by Giovanni Boccati in the Galleria Nazionale dell’Umbria.

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Member since
2003

Marinella Miano

Member since 2003, Worksite Manager.

Her contact with the Cooperative dates to projects undertaken from 1980 to 1986 following the Naples earthquake. She returns whenever possible to her home territory, and over many years has specialised in wall paintings. Amongst projects she has led are the paintings of the apse in S. Giovanni in Vertemarte and the paintings of the Sanctuary of the Madonna di Appari in Paganica. She has also worked on the paintings of Lippi at Prato and the Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi in Rome. Recently she coordinated the treatment of several Republican Era Roman statues from an excavation near Rome and the Casa di Lorejo Tiburtino in Pompei.

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Member since
2015

Matteo Rossi Doria

Member since 2015. Worksite Manager.

After working as an independent contractor in the field since 1979, he joined the Cooperative in 2015. He specialises in the structural conservation and the lining of paintings on canvas, paper and leather and has carried out hundreds of treatments both in Italy and abroad. He has developed and implemented preventative conservation projects for the collections at the Galleria Spada and the Museo di Roma, Palazzo Braschi in Rome, as well as for the collection of carriages of the House of Savoy at the Presidential residence at the Quirinale in Rome. He engages extensively in training and research in Italy and abroad. In 2015, he led the dismantling and transfer of the Italian Memorial at the Museum of Auschwitz-Birkenau. He was a member of Cesmar 7 from 2001-2008.

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Member since
1983

Lucia Tito

Member since, Worksite Manager 1983-2020

Specialising in easel paintings conservation, many years of work in the field, especially in the Venetian schools, and continuous retraining in the latest technical developments have provided her with notable expertise in the area. She has worked on and coordinated projects involving numerous works from the Museo Correr and the Gallerie dell’Accademia including works by Giovanni Bellini, Vittore Carpaccio, Cosmè Tura, Antonello da Messina, Lorenzo Lotto, Cima da Conegliano, Jacobello del Fiore and the canvas and wall paintings of Veronese in San Sebastiano, Venice.

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Member since
2019

Vincenzo Ardagna

Member since 2019. Restorer

With more than ten years’ experience in the field Vincenzo has worked with CBC since 2015. He took part in the treatment of the Trevi Fountain, the dismantling and transfer of the Italian memorial at Auschwitz and since December 2018, the ongoing maintenance program for the collection of the Vatican Museums.

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Member since
2020

Roberta Boscherini

Member since 2020. Restorer

After graduating in 2018 from the Istituto Superiore per la Conservazione e il Restauro, she started working with CBC in 2019. In Rome she has engaged in the treatment of the wall paintings and wood coffered ceilings of Palazzo Clementi and the paintings and stucco of the dome of Sant’Andrea delle Fratte, while in Venice she has worked on canvases in the church of San Sebastiano and Giorgione’s “Nuda”, now in the Accademia gallery. Recently she participated in the important treatment of the Temple of Vesta at the Roman Forum.

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Member since
2019

Carlotta Taddei

Member since 2019. Restorer

A graduate in 2018 of the Istituto Superiore per la Conservazione e il Restauro, she has worked with CBC since that date on the conservation of the excavations of the Baths of Elagabalus on the Palatine Hill, on the wall paintings and wooden coffered ceilings in Palazzo Clementi in Rome, and in Milan on the balustrade of the façade of Villa Simonetta, home to the Claudio Abbado Music School.

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Member since
2022

Alice Tognoni

Member since 2022. Restorer

Alice graduated from the Istituto Superiore per la Conservazione e il Restauro in 2016 and started working with CBC in 2020. Some of the more important projects she has worked on include Artemisia Gentileschi’s canvas “Sinite Parvulos” from the basilica of Santi Ambrogio e Carlo al Corso, Pietro da Cortona’s great “Rape of the Sabines” from the Capitoline Museums and “Le Nozze di Cana” from the workshop of Veronese, held in the Chamber of Deputies of the Italian Parliament.

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Member since
2023

Giulia Mercuri

Member since 2023. Restorer

Giulia graduated in Conservation and Restoration of Cultural Heritage from Carlo Bo University of Urbino in 2018. She first started working with the CBC in 2019 and has assisted on projects such as Gianbattista Tiepolo’s canvas The Scourge of the Serpents and Vittorio Carpaccio’s The Miracle of the Relic of the True Cross at the Rialto Bridge from the Gallerie dell’Accademia, Venice as well as the emergency treatment on Giovanni Bellini’s altarpiece The Coronation of the Virgin from the Civic Museum of Pesaro and the structural conservation of several paintings from the Museo di Capodimonte in Naples. She also participated in the EU Horizon Collection Care project and in the Getty Foundation funded project Conserving Canvas, Water-based adhesives in canvas paintings structural conservation, working out of the Museum of Palazzo Barberini, Rome.

 

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Honorary members

Member since
1977

Giovanna Martellotti

Founder member, Business Manager and Technical Manager from 1977 to 2021.

President from 1993 to July 2017. Deals with project coordination, planning and documentation. She represents the CBC in promotions and publicity. She has written numerous contributions to specialist journals and catalogues on works treated by the CBC and on the relationship between conservation and scientific analyses and conservation and documentation. In 2013, she published Ehi Maddalena! which describes her professional life in the form of a dialogue. She has taught on conservation at the Faculty of Philosophy and Literature at Roma Tre University.

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Member since
1977

Sabina Vedovello

Founder member. Vice President and Quality Manager until July 2017. Technical Director until the 2021.

Sabina has coordinated and taken part in conservation projects on easel paintings – including entire museum collections – wall paintings, and stone. She has worked on cataloguing and project planning both in Italy and abroad and has numerous publications on conservation treatments she has managed. She was a member of the Council for the Italian Association of Conservators (ARI) from its inception in 1990 until 2001 and since 2014 she has been teaching wall paintings conservation in the degree course in Conservation of Cultural Property at the Università della Tuscia.

 

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Member since
1982

Carla Bertorello

Restorer partner from 1982 to 2021. Member of the Board of Directors until July 2017.

Carla has led treatments on important projects such as the Tomb of Cardinal Gugliemo de Braye and the San Brizio Chapel in the Duomo of Orvieto, the Pesaro Altarpiece by Giovanni Bellini and published widely on the results. She has also managed the treatment and the maintenance of the art collections at Palazzo Braschi, Rome, at the Union CGIL and the Unicredit bank.

She’s editor for the specialist journal Kermes since 1993, from 2000 to 2008 she worked with the Faculty of Cultural Heritage at Università della Tuscia and has also been on the council of the Italian Group of the IIC since its foundation.

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Member since
1977

Rosanna Coppola

Founder member, Worksite Manager 1977-2019.

IN MEMORY OF ROSANNA COPPOLA, a most genial conservator and colleague, who passed away one year ago, on 10 March 2023.  A graduate of the Istituto Centrale di Restauro in Rome, she was a founder-member of CBC where she remained all her long professional career, with an output which remains astonishing even to her friends and colleagues. Her career began with works by Torriti, Cimabue and Giotto in the Basilica of St Francis, Assisi, followed by paintings in the Palazzo dei Conservatori (1982, 1988) and Antonio Solario’s frecoes in the Chiostro del Platano in Naples. From 1991 to 1994 she guided the meticulous conservation of the mural paintings in the Crypt of Anagni Cathedral and worked on the frescos of Beato Angelico and Luca Signorelli in the Cappella di S. Brizio, Orvieto Cathedral. She then worked in Milan in the Cappella di San Giorgio, S. Ambrogio and, when back in Rome, on Giacinto Brandi’s vault frescos of S. Silvestro in Capite and on works by Pietro da Cortona in the Throne Room at the Quirinale Palace. In Assisi, after the earthquake of 1997, she worked on the stabilization of the vaults and conducted the first trials for the aesthetic reintegration of two Saints from the entrance arch of the Basilica, reconstructed from fragments of the collapsed vaults. She also worked on the frescos of Filippo Lippi in Prato Cathedral (2000-2001) and the paintings of the Crypt of the Original Sin in Matera, returning to Anagni for the Matroneo delle Monache in the Church of S. Pietro in Vineis. However, her main passion was for panel paintings and painted wooden sculpture. In Orvieto she treated the Polyptych of S. Domenico and the Madonna with Child by Simone Martini; for the reopening of Pistoia’s  Civic Museum (1982) she restored panels by the Master of 1310, Lorenzo di Credi, Giovanbattista Naldini and Ridolfo del Ghirlandaio; she treated the Lamentation over the Dead Christ by Giovanni Bellini in the Vatican Museums for its temporary reunion with the Pesaro Altarpiece and also conserved the wood Crucifix by Maitani and the Madonna dei Raccomandati by Lippo Memmi in the Cathedral of Orvieto. Between 1990 and 1991 she worked in the National Gallery of Umbria and when back in Rome she treated Caravaggio’s Narcissus (1995), Raphael’s Fornarina (2000) and the Crucifix of Teramo Cathedral. She concluded her career with several great Venetian canvas paintings: Veronese’s Story of Esther canvases in S. Sebastiano (2009-2010), Tintoretto’s Last Supper in the Church of S. Giorgio and several Tintorettos and Carpaccio’s magnificent Saint Ursula cycle (2017-18) from the Accademia.

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Member since
1983

Cinzia Silvestri

Worksite Manager 1983-2020.

Apart from coordinating many important projects such as the Raphael’s Fornarina and Metsys’ Portrait of Erasmus and the study and conservation of the Roman sculptures in the Braccio Nuovo of the Vatican Museums, she has specialised in treatments on stucco and gypsum, and modern and contemporary art. In these areas, she has worked on the decorations of the Sala delle Dame at Palazzo Quirinale, the Andersen Collection at Rome and sculptures by Thayaht (Ernesto Michahelles). She has recently worked on the Nanoprotech project with the University of Cosenza aimed at developing new systems for consolidating and protecting stone.

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Member since
1977

Maria Grazia Chilosi

Founder member, Technical Manager from 1977 to 2022.

Maria Grazia has coordinated numerous projects, specialising above all in the stone conservation  and the identification of sculptural working techniques. In this area her more important projects include the Bernini sculptures in the Galleria Borghese, the funerary monument in Santa Maria Sopra Minerva and Santa Maria del Popolo, and the Fontana di Trevi, all in Rome. Since 2014 she has taught stone conservation in the degree course in Conservation of Cultural Property at the Università della Tuscia and for 10 years she directed the Training Worksite for the post graduate course in Conservation of Monuments at the University of Rome “La Sapienza”.

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