Italian paintings in the US and their conservation
APRIL 20, 2026 – How did so many of Italy’s most important Old Master pictures find their way into American museums and private collections? Please join us for a lecture by Molly March, Conservator of Paintings, to examine historic, cultural and economic forces that shaped the transatlantic migration of Italian art to the United States in the first half of the 20th century, as well as the subsequent preservation and treatment of Italian paintings in this country.
We will view the pivotal role played by influential dealers and collectors – such as Alessandro Contini-Bonacossi and Samuel H. Kress – in forming America’s taste for Italian painting; their vision, resources, and networks profoundly shaped the presence of Renaissance and Baroque masterpieces in the United States and led to extraordinary gifts to public institutions across the country.
This lecture touches on the physical transfer of these works: how Italian paintings reacted to America’s different climate, how restorers in place responded, and the introduction of specialized training for American conservators: the Samuel H. Kress Program in Paintings Conservation at the Conservation Center of the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University.
Why are paintings restored? Aesthetic recovery; authorship or attribution; economic value; and structural stabilization are all forces that drive conservation projects, and these will be demonstrated by viewing the restoration of works by Botticelli , Raphael, and a follower of Michelangelo – among other Italian artists – personally undertaken by the speaker.
Finally, the talk considers our region, and asks why classical Italian paintings are absent from some Southern museums—such as the Gibbes Museum of Art in Charleston—while they are represented in others, including the Columbia Museum of Art and the North Carolina Museum of Art.
Through history, connoisseurship, and first-hand reflection, this lecture offers a deeper understanding of paintings conservation practices, and how Italian masterpieces became an integral part of America’s cultural heritage.
PHOTO – Detail of Madonna of Loreto Appearing to Three Saints by Domenichino (Domenico Zampieri) c. 1618-1620, North Carolina Museum of Art, Gift of the Samuel H. Kress Foundation
Molly March studied the History of Art at the University of California at Berkeley (B.A.) and New York University’s Institute of Fine Arts (M.A.), and holds a Certificate in Conservation from the Conservation Center of the Institute of Fine Arts. Her initial training was completed with New York-based restorers Nancy Krieg, Dianne Modestini and Marco Grassi, followed by advanced work as a Samuel H. Kress Fellow in the paintings conservation departments of the North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh; the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam; and the Gallerie degli Uffizi, Florence. For two decades, she operated a private restoration studio in Manhattan that specialized in Italian pictures, and now resides and works in Charleston.
Date: Monday, April 20, 2026
Time: 6:00 PM – 7:30PM
Location: South Carolina Society Hall, 72 Meeting Street, Downtown Charleston, SC 29401
Italian wines will be served before the presentation with hors d’oeuvres.
