Newsletter 2025 Vol. 2

DIRECTOR’S MESSAGE

Catching Our Breath And Catching You Up On A Few Highlights From The Past Year, Or So…

It’s been a while, coming round full circle post pandemic and beyond, since our last formal newsletter was shared with you in March 2019. Time does just fly by, especially when we’ve been busy. The past few years have marked many more momentous turning points for our conservation studios, I felt compelled by the fresh start of the New Year to share a brief summary of our continuing and ongoing wild ride.

It is strange to realize that our last newsletter in 2019, was focused on a summarization of Disaster Recovery projects from the catastrophic 2017-2018 wildfires; and now here we are again facing an even greater epic catastrophe with the recent Los Angeles wildfires. Our hearts and thoughts go out to all who have lost so much, and had their lives upended; it’s devastating to witness.

Surviving the Pandemic and returning to the studios after a five month of closure, was daunting. We were initially unsure how new projects would unfold, or even materialize. This worry blew right past us, as the reality check was that we’ve never been busier, juggling more concurrent projects than ever before. This stampede of work has only further ramped up in the following years to today.

I’ve been able to provide career employment for our eight person team and permanent professional staff, along with 4-6 paid internships per semester. Our studios are now comprised of three individual working labs, all within a three block walk, a total of 6000+ sq. ft. of climate controlled, implemented IPM, working and storage space. We are now able to have a complete quarantine and isolation for contaminated and infested collections inventory prior to treatment— at the Annex & Hive. Our CO₂ Anoxia oxygen deprivation encapsulation chambers, and custom bubbles in every dimension, are easily accessible to the adjacent, yet separated studio locations—plenty of room to keep our busy beehive actively working on many client projects concurrently.

We’d like to share our appreciation and gratitude for our partnerships with whom we regularly rely on. We’ve utilized all of our local and regional professional art handlers a great deal these past few years—a very thankful shout out to Connect Art International, Atthowe, UOVO, Lawrence Fine Art, and Crozier Fine Arts.

I am also honored to share that I was awarded Small Business Person of the Year, by voting members of Alignable.com for the 3rd year in a row. Additionally, we were gobsmacked surprised to find out that the October 2024 “Top 200 Collectors” annual issue of ARTnews, had a feature article within “The 135 Top Art World Professionals“, listing twelve categories from the diverse art and museum industries, including Conservators. ACdR Art Conservation ~ SF, was top of the short list in good company with thirteen other well established and esteemed professional colleagues from across the U.S.

Looking ahead this Spring we will continue to work at a break neck hectic pace, with numerous ongoing big inventory projects with the de Saisset Museum at Santa Clara University, the SCU Jesuit Seminary, The National Park Service, The Berkeley Museum of Art and Pacific Film Archive at UC Berkeley…along with many other public and private clients. Our studios work together with all clients, as partners, to provide comprehensive preventative measures for future disasters and mitigation planning addressing California’s “New Abnormal” climate changes.

This February, you’ll find us in the Exhibitors Hall at the California Association of Museums (CAM) annual conference in San Francisco, as well as, the American Alliance of Museums (AAM) Expo in Los Angeles this May—come visit our booths, and say hello!

Please let us know if we can be of assistance with any conservation, remediation, recovery, and preservation of fine art and cultural heritage materials. We have the expertise, are experienced, caring, and do good work for the greater good.

Let’s be good stewards together!

Warm Regards, Elise Yvonne Morin-Rousseau

Director, Principal Conservator and founder of ACdR Art Conservation,

atelier established in 1999.

OUR TOP 5 PROJECTS OF 2024

Mark Barnes House Fire Disaster Recovery and Remediation

In 2024, we completed the treatment of over three-hundred works of art which were damaged in a Bernal Heights house fire. This collection, comprised of many important Mid-Twentieth Century Berkeley School of Art pieces, ranging from paintings, to prints, to ceramics, that were greatly impacted and contaminated by smoke, soot, and ash from the fire, as well as the water used to extinguish the flames. Highlights in this collection include several singular, large-scale David Gilhooly ceramics, one of which is a self-portrait of the artist, and another his trademark frog-centric motif. Our client was a contemporary of and fostered a friendship with Gilhooly – and throughout their relationship, he acquired many of these now highly collectable ceramic works. Over the course of this project, we repaired and restored four of these significant ceramic works that had suffered damage during the fire.

Conservation Science: Analytical Testing of the Haggin Museum’s Gauguin Painting

The existence of Gauguins in Northern California are said to be rare. When Flowers and Fruit (circa 1898) was discovered by Stephanie Brown, author of The Case of the Disappearing Gauguin (2024), at the Haggin Museum in Stockton, California, the question of its authenticity was raised. ACdR was asked to conduct scientific analyses to determine how the painting was made by studying its physical history from the canvas, all the way through to the layers of paint and varnish. The technologies employed in our research lab included: microscopic fiber analysis, cross-section sampling, and dual wavelength ultra violet + infrared inspection. Our team also collaborated with Gawain Weaver Art Conservation to scan the painting using X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy to determine what elements of pigment are present. While our technical analyses did not provide conclusive evidence, it was our finding that the painting is in original condition, authentic to its age of creation, with no later alterations. Further gas spectrometry is planned in the future to be conducted by the Getty Conservation Institute.

Bank of America’s San Francisco Fine Art Collections: A Four Year Conservation Campaign

ACdR proudly concluded a comprehensive four-year conservation project for Bank of America’s vast San Francisco fine art collections. This ambitious endeavor encompassed the conservation of approximately 5,000 works of art, featuring notable artists such as Sam Francis, Juan Hamilton, Tom Holland, Roy Lichtenstein, Robert Rauschenberg, Ed Ruscha, Frank Stella, and many others. The meticulous effort involved cleaning, custom treatments both on-site and off-site, and carefully packing the collection at the San Francisco storage facility. Following this, our team coordinated the transportation of the entire collection to Delaware. As the project concluded, ACdR and Bank of America also generously donated over 2,500 items, including framed museum art posters, works on paper and other original art works, to Habitat for Humanity ReStore, further extending the impact of this monumental campaign. 

Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, UC Berkeley: Conservation of the Remarkable Eli Leon Collection of African American Quilts

The BAMPFA museum, in collaboration with UC Berkeley, is home to the largest collection of African American quilts in the world. ACdR is honored to copartner on this significant conservation effort, which began in 2022 and will continue through 2028. As part of the conservation process, the quilts undergo mold and pest remediation through CO₂ anoxia oxygen deprivation encapsulation treatment to eliminate organic threats and are then carefully rehoused in archival museum quality boxes and materials to ensure their long-term preservation. Select quilts treated by ACdR will be featured in the upcoming exhibition “Routed West: Twentieth-Century African American Quilts in California,” and will be on display at BAMPFA from June 7, 2025 to November 30, 2025. 

Far East Cafe: The Incredible Conservation Journey of Eleven 19th Century Historic Chinese Chandeliers and Lanterns

Far East Cafe in the heart of San Francisco’s Chinatown is one of the longest operating Chinese banquet restaurants in California. In 2024, we concluded a two-year conservation campaign of their beautiful historic chandeliers and lanterns—a project sponsored by the National Trust and American Express. The unique elegance of the objects; which are complex works of art featuring multiple delicate materials such as feathers, wood, metals, porcelain, and glass, were once again revealed after comprehensive cleaning to remove more than 100 years worth of dust, grime, soot, cooking grease, and debris. They were meticulously cleaned while standing on scaffolding or ladders, repaired in detail, and in-painted where necessary. In order to not disrupt the restaurant’s operations, we worked on-site weekly, only during the days when they were closed.

MEET OUR STAFF

Every quarter we will introduce you to a few members of our team! ACdR relies on its staff to uphold the utmost professional museum standards of practice and expertise specializing in conservation treatment and preservation. Along with an established mentorship practice for pre-program and post-graduate interns from around the globe, our studios support the future professional development of art conservators through supervised, constructive, and instructive environments. 

OUR SPECIALTY SERVICES

FINE ART CONSERVATION, RESTORATION & COLLECTIONS CARE

A Multi-disciplinary Fine Art Conservation Center for the Preservation of Cultural Material and Artistic Works

Our conservation practice and analytical research lab specializes in the Conservation Treatment, Preventative Care and Preservation of Collections for a variety of materials and mediums which include: Paintings, Textiles, Historic Objects and Artifacts, Decorative Arts, Sculpture, Rare Books and Paper, Ethnographic Art, and other Ephemera.

We provide expertise in Mold and Pest Abatement, Environmental Management, Emergency Disaster Recovery, Remediation, and Mitigation Preparedness services when fine art collections are damaged and contaminated by fire, smoke, floods, mold, and pest incidents, working in tandem with Insurance claim adjusters, and other vendors, such as re-building contractors, and house remediation companies. Our projects range from the minute to the grand. We will work with you to devise and design plans for practical conservation strategies.