Julia Nagle Conservation Ltd comprises a responsive team of experienced modern and contemporary painting conservators, a preventive conservator, and two registrars. Based in our own large, fully-equipped London Studio with excellent access, security, and Inward Processing Relief for imported artworks, we also travel to clients in the UK and abroad.
As specialists in paintings from 1900 to Contemporary, we are often the first conservators to interact with artworks and our emphasis is on minimal intervention, accurate documentation, and preventive care. With experience in museums and private practice, we bridge the gap between commercial and institutional conservation, providing holistic collection care and novel solutions to new problems. Our clients include artists, foundations, art advisors, commercial galleries, private and corporate collections, insurers, and public institutions in the UK and Internationally.
Modern and Contemporary Art conservation
We conserve modern and contemporary artworks that have been damaged or neglected, which often include vulnerable, unvarnished paint surfaces requiring specialist knowledge. Working in clean, fully-equipped and secure modern premises with access for very large paintings, we liaise with living artists or their representatives as needed, and sensitively treat paintings that may never have been exposed to conservation before. Our experienced team, with strong links to conservation scientists and experts in other media, can respond to a wide range of novel conservation problems. We work on site if necessary, both in the UK and Internationally and are official conservators for Frieze and Frieze Masters Art Fairs.
Condition Assessments and Collection Care
We provide holistic care for private and corporate collections in the UK and Worldwide, bridging the perceived gap between commercial and museum conservation. Collection condition surveys are undertaken and preventive and remedial conservation solutions recommended, prioritised and implemented. We provide advice on environmental monitoring, pest management, packing and transport, display, as well as professional documentation and oversight of loans in person or via virtual courier services.
We provide independent condition assessments for insurers, loans, sales and purchase, for a wide range of clients based in the UK, USA, Europe, Africa, UEA, Australia and New Zealand.
Artists, Artists’ Estates and Foundations
We are experienced in working with living artists to realise their artworks, and to ensure that subsequent treatments reflect the artist’s original intention. Through our relationships with artists and their estates and foundations, built over many years, we offer advice and practical support for commissions, varnishing and structural repairs, and ensure that treatments are ratified and retain the artist’s original intent. Where techniques are new or unorthodox, we are often able to obtain the necessary information and materials to achieve a successful repair. This in-depth knowledge also enables us to accurately assess the condition of a wide range of modern and contemporary artworks and advise on their future care.
Paintings post 1900
Many paintings from this period are by groups of artists that have hitherto been neglected, these include female artists and those from countries outside Europe or the USA. We employ a range of modern techniques to ensure that these paintings, many of which are unvarnished, are treated in a sensitive way with materials that will remain reversible, or allow for re treatment in the future. Tears are re woven under the microscope and protective insulated backboards that remain removable are applied to avoid the need for more invasive treatments such as re lining canvases, which set artworks off on a cycle of future restoration.
Accredited Conservators
Julia Nagle ACR
Julia’s conservation career started at English Heritage, followed by ten years at the Hamilton Kerr Institute, University of Cambridge. After moving to Tate Modern in 2003 to specialise in modern paintings, she established her own studio in 2009. The practice employs five conservators, a preventive conservator and two registrars, and runs a year-long internship for a recently-qualified conservator to train in modern and contemporary conservation.
Julia is an Icon accredited conservator and has been an assessor for Professional Accreditation of Conservation Professionals across all disciplines since 2009. She is a Fellow of the International Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic works, a member of the Advisory Council for The Hamilton Kerr Institute, and an external advisor for the GREENART project at Tate. Julia has been on the selection panel for the Plowden Medal since 2015.
Olympia Diamond ACR
Olympia completed the Postgraduate Diploma in the Conservation of Easel Paintings at The Courtauld Institute of Art in 2014. During this time, she was a Research Associate Scholar for the Courtauld Gallery and began investigating the treatment of water stains on acrylic paintings, which led to a publication and presentation at the AIC Conference in Chicago in 2017. Before joining JNC in 2017, Olympia was Assistant Paintings Conservator at the National Museums Liverpool and has worked for the Guildhall Art Gallery and English Heritage. Olympia became an Accredited Member of Icon in 2021 and is on the Council for the British Association of Painting Conservator Restorers.