Donatella Banti is both a Painting Conservator and a Chemist. Her main interest lies in applying scientific methods of investigation, such as spectroscopic and imaging techniques, both to study art works and to advance conservation methods.
Donatella has worked as a painting conservator for some of the major private studios in London and has acquired a keen interest and expertise in the conservation of modern and contemporary artworks, publishing on an innovative using agarose gels. She has also worked as a paintings’ conservator for the Parliamentary Art Collection and the National Trust.
She has worked in the scientific department at Tate and is currently a part-time Conservation Scientist at the Victoria and Albert Museum.
Since 2023, she has been the recipient of a , a scheme for research reintegration . Her research project investigates the material and techniques of Polish British Artist Franciszka Themerson and aims at understanding the causes of surface degradation phenomena on her 196051²è¹Ý¶ù white paintings.
Donatella has an MSc in Chemistry from the University of Pisa (Italy), a PhD in Chemistry from King51²è¹Ý¶ù College London, and has worked 12 years as a postdoctoral researcher, lecturer and senior lecturer in universities in Amsterdam and London before taking a break from Academia for personal and family reasons. During her break she gained a Postgraduate Diploma in the Conservation of Easel painting at the Courtauld institute of Art.
