DIA Name New Conservator of Paintings

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DETROIT — Ellen Hanspach-Bernal has been named  the new conservator of paintings at the The Detroit Institute of Arts.

 As paintings conservator she is responsible for the care of the museum’s encyclopedic paintings collection ranging from early European to Contemporary. Her focus will be on the examination, treatment, and long-term preservation of the collection as well as research into the artists’ materials and techniques.

Prior to joining the DIA, Hanspach-Bernal was the paintings conservator at the Conservation Center for the Museums of the City of Erfurt, Germany, where her focus was on the treatment of objects in the Medieval Collection. She also worked as the project assistant for the Dresden Institute for the Structural Treatments of Panel Paintings, at the Dresden State Art Museums as part of the Getty’s Panel Painting Initiative.

Earlier this year she co-organized the conference “The Conservation of Panel Paintings – Experiences from the Field,” and has recently published on the maintenance of works by Dan Flavin. From 2011 to 2015 Hanspach-Bernal served as co-chair of the Paintings Specialty Group within the German Association for Conservators.

Hanspach-Bernal received her Diploma in Fine Art Conservation in 2006 from the University of Fine Arts, Dresden, Germany. Upon graduation, she was selected as the Andrew W. Mellon Fellow at the Menil Collection in Houston.