ArtWatch International

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ArtWatch International was founded by James Beck, professor of art history at Columbia University, to monitor, and campaign for better practices in, the conservation of art works. The United Kingdom branch, ArtWatch UK, is run by Michael Daley.

1 Activities
2 Ludwig Burchard
3 See also
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Activities

ArtWatch has been critical of many conservation practices and projects, including the restoration of Leonardo da Vinci's The Last Supper. In 2004 it raised a petition, which was unsuccessful, to halt the restoration of Michelangelo's David.

Beck and Daley are frequently outspoken and their controversial opinions on recent restorations are covered regularly by the press ^[1], ^[2]. However, they have been equally strongly opposed by those they criticise. The Surveyor of the Fabric of St. Paul's Cathedral, who oversaw a 2004 cleaning of the cathedral that came under fire by Daley, retorted that "ArtWatch UK sounds very grand, but seems to be the view of one person"^[3].

The organisation also has wide respect and support among many leading art historians and archaeologists.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Ludwig Burchard

In April 2006 the ArtWatch UK Journal published research into Ludwig Burchard, a scholar who had made many attributions to Rubens. This showed that Burchard had been prepared to make false attributions for commercial gain. It again called into question the authenticity of the National Gallery's Samson and Delilah. The research was conducted by Kasia Pisarek, a graduate of the Sorbonne in Paris who is completing a PhD at the University of Warsaw.^[4]