Obituaries

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IIC publishes obituaries on the website, and if appropriate in News in Conservation, for IIC Members and Fellows who have made a significant contribution to the conservation profession. Enquiries can be sent to office@iiconservation.org

Obituary: Professor Sharon Cather (1947-2019)

Submitted by Kate Stonor on

Sharon Cather at St Gabriel’s Chapel, Canterbury Cathedral, 1990. Image courtesy of David Park. © Courtauld Institute of Art.

Image: Sharon Cather at St Gabriel’s Chapel, Canterbury Cathedral, 1990. Image courtesy of David Park. © Courtauld Institute of Art.

The IIC is saddened by the death, on 6th June, of IIC Fellow and former Vice President Sharon Cather after a brief illness. The Shelby White and Leon Levy Professor of Conservation Studies at the Courtauld Institute of Art (retired 2018), Sharon served on IIC Council for six years, as Vice President from 2010-2014, and as Chair of the Technical Committee for both the 2010 IIC Istanbul Congress and the 2012 Vienna Congress.

Obituary: Marcel Stefanaggi

Submitted by Kate Stonor on

Marcel Stefenaggi © LRMH / Dominique Bouchardon

By Dominique De Reyer & Emmanuel Maurin

It is with the deepest regret that we report the death of Marcel Stefanaggi, the news of his death being received on the day after SFIIC’s Annual General Meeting on 11th April 2019.

Having graduated in chemistry and art history, Marcel Stefanaggi was a trailblazer in heritage conservation, recognising the importance of relationships and dialogues between scientific disciplines and the arts and their benefit for cultural heritage conservation.

Obituary: Robert Shepherd

Submitted by Kate Stonor on

Robert Shepherd (1935-2018). Photo courtesy of Simon Howell, Shepherd Conservation.

By Simon Howell

IIC, with sadness, notes the passing of Robert Shepherd, Fellow of IIC, member of IIC Council and inspirational conservator; here Simon Howell recalls Robert Shepherd's unique career and contribution to the conservation profession.

Obituary: Malcolm Gillespie

Submitted by Kate Smith on

Malcolm Gillespie (1944-1918). Photo courtesy of Lee Holland

By Graham Voce

We are sad to record the passing of Malcolm Gillespie, artist and designer, who was for over ten years an important and valued part of the IIC team.

Obituary: Robert L. Feller

Submitted by Kate Smith on

Dr. Robert Feller in the laboratory of the Mellon Institute's Research Center on the Materials of the Artist and Conservator. Image courtesy of Paul Whitmore

By Paul Whitmore

The art conservation world lost a towering figure with the passing on August 3, 2018, of Dr. Robert L. Feller in Pittsburgh, PA, at the age of 98. Dr. Feller, Bob to his friends, devoted his life to providing the scientific research essential to the advancement of conservation practice. He was a pioneer and the leading practitioner of the emerging discipline of art conservation science research.

Obituary: Andrea Rothe

Submitted by Sharra Grow on

Andrea Rothe at the J. Paul Getty Museum, 1988. Photograph courtesy J. Paul Getty Museum

It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of Andrea Rothe who served as Senior Conservator of Paintings at the Getty Museum for over twenty years. Born in Italy of German parents, he studied conservation in Florence and Vienna and was an assistant to the artist Oskar Kokoschka before becoming a private conservator for the Italian state. He worked on a number of important paintings at museums and churches across Italy, and eventually became head of the prominent paintings conservation studio housed at the Pitti Palace. Equally notable was his role in saving many paintings damaged in the Arno flooding (1966) as well as his presence at many professional conferences, which made him an international figure in the conservation field.

Obituary: Colin Pearson

Submitted by Graham Voce on

Dr Colin Pearson © Julian Bickersteth

Vale Dr Colin Pearson, “Father of the Conservation Profession in Australia”, friend and mentor to generations of conservators in Australia and internationally. The Australian Institute for the Conservation of Cultural Material (AICCM) is saddened to report the death of Dr Colin Pearson, AO, MBE on Sunday 17th April 2016. Colin was a former Council member and Vice President of IIC.

Obituary: Christopher Clarkson

Submitted by Barbara Borghese on

Christopher Clarkson, who died just before midnight on Thursday 30 March 2017 at the age of 79, was the pre-eminent conservator of medieval manuscripts and early printed books and a much-respected historian of book-binding and in particular of the structural history of bookbinding, specializing in the period from the birth of the codex to the early Renaissance.

Obituary: Tom Stone

Submitted by Graham Voce on

It is with great sadness that we wish to convey the passing of Tom Stone on Saturday December 6th, 2014, in his 68th year. Tom was a highly regarded leader in ethnographic conservation and has left an indelible mark in the field of objects conservation in Canada and beyond.

Obituary: Gustav Berger

Submitted by Graham Voce on


Gustav Berger, paintings conservator known for his innovative approaches to our profession, died on March 5, 2006 at the age of 85. He was born in Vienna on July 28, 1920. He painted when he was young and had an exhibition of his paintings in Vienna when he was only 18 years old. He studied Civil Engineering at the Haifa Technical Institute served with the British Army from 1940 to 1946 and with the Israel Defense Forces from 1947-48. He was trained in photogrammetry and made maps from photographs in Israel.

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