Art Advisory Board

Conservation and Management

Robert Child
Robert Child is Head of Conservation at the National Museums and Galleries of Wales and advisor to The National Trust. He has a BSc in Chemistry and is a trained conservator specialising in all aspects of collection care, including environmental and biological control and is a consultant on such matters to heritage institutions worldwide. He has worked on the development of sophisticated security marking systems for some years that are conservation tested. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Conservation and a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London.

Valentine Walsh
Valentine Walsh is an accredited fine art conservator in private practice with over 30 years experience. Her clients include the Imperial War Museum, the Museum of London, Royal Naval Museum as well as leading London dealers and major collections in the UK and abroad. She has considerable experience in the conservation of paintings of all periods and is widely connected to other experts within the field both in other disciplines and internationally. She sits on a number of committees and leading professional bodies within the UK and EU organisations. She is a Fellow of the International Institute for Conservation and a Professional Associate of the American Institute for Conservation. She has a keen interest in the application of scientific, investigative and analytical methods to conservation. This includes an interest in the provision of technologically advanced, conservation acceptable means of marking objects. She has recently researched and co-authored a major reference work for the identification of pigments in works of art and is co-founder of The Pigmentum Project.

Research

Dr. Nicholas Eastaugh
Dr. Nicholas Eastaugh specialises in the analysis of fine art and other historical objects with an international client base incorporating private collectors, national museums, auction houses and dealers.  He holds a B.Sc. in physics and is also a graduate of the Courtauld Institute of Art. He is an honorary fellow of the Research Laboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art, Oxford University and has held posts at the Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London and the Textile Conservation Centre, Hampton Court Palace.  He is a co-founder of The Pigmentum Project, an inter-disciplinary programme aimed at developing comprehensive high-quality analytical data on historic pigments. He is also co-author of a major reference work for the identification of pigments in works of art and a lecturer in microscopy, conservation science, technical art history and forensic science.

Security and Risk Management

Richard Ellis
Dick Ellis has been a specialist art crime investigator for over 20years. A career detective with the Metropolitan Police he served on the International and Organised Crime Squad at New Scotland Yard, where in 1989 he set up the Art and Antiques Unit, which he ran until his retirement from the police in 1999. Notable recoveries in which he was directly involved include The Scream stolen from the National Gallery of Norway in 1994, paintings from the Beit Collection stolen in Ireland, the Bruegel stolen from the Courtauld Institute in London, Audubon's "Birds of Americaî stolen form the State Library in St. Petersburg, and several thousand antiquities looted from Egypt and China. After retiring from the police he became the general manager of Christie√s Fine Art Security Services Ltd, before becoming Managing Director of Trace running a database for stolen art and antiques together with Trace Magazine. An independent art risk consultant since 2002, he has served as a member of UNESCO's international panel of experts on the protection of cultural property and was instrumental in the creation of the Council for the Prevention of Art Theft's Due Diligence Code.

Peter Osborne
Following a career in Military and Diplomatic security operations around the world, Peter Osborne entered into the world of art and became the National Security Adviser to the Museums and Galleries Commission. He advised governments and cultural institutions alike on practical issues and represented British interests at the Council of Europe and other national and international cultural bodies. He has helped to set national and international standards of protection in close association with such bodies as the Heritage Lottery Fund, International Committee of Museum Security, Scotland Yard√s Art and Antiques Squad, Council for the Prevention of Art Theft and the American Smithsonian Institution, including government authorities, insurance providers and HM Customs and Excise.  On a practical level he has advised and overseen security requirements for new and refurbished building operations, exhibition programmes, transportation of art, lottery and indemnity applications. As head of the Bureau of Cultural Protection he has introduced new initiatives and completed a number of art protection programmes at home and abroad whilst continuing to lecture to universities. He is a member of the International Council of Museums, International Committee of Museum Security, Museums association and the United Kingdom Registrar√s Group.