New Conservator at VFMA

The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts has named Stephen D. Bonadies to be its chief conservator and deputy director for collections management, VMFA Director Alex Nyerges has announced.

A 27-year veteran of museum work, Bonadies comes to Richmond from the Cincinnati Art Museum, where he held positions including chief conservator, director of museum services, deputy director and interim co-director. He will begin work at VMFA March 2, 2009.

I am fascinated by the conservation process and at the same time shocked how little many art schools spend teaching its art students about conservation materials (or about art materials period).

My favorite read on this subject is Jonathan Harr's superb The Lost Painting. The book is the story, told by Harr masterfully as an art detective story of sorts, of the discovery of Caravaggio's The Taking of the Christ in a Jesuit residence in Ireland.