Isabella Villafranca Soissons

Isabella Villafranca Soissons was born in Turin in 1961. After studying painting restoration at the Art and Restoration Institute of Florence, she went on to graduate in Architecture from the Polytechnic University of Turin. She then completed internships at the London Tate Gallery and the Metropolitan Museum of New York.

Restauration and Conservation

In 1994 she joined Open Care, first as technical director of the painting and composite works atelier and then, as of 2000, as director and scientific head of the Conservation and Restoration Department.

Today she is a member of the board of directors of the company, director of the Conservation and Restoration Department and scientific head, coordinator of panels and projects connected with research and publications, manager in charge of institutional relations with the Ministry of Cultural Heritage and heritage superintendencies, new web services and social media platform organiser, and special projects coordinator.

She has worked on projects and research, in Italy and internationally, on the conservation, handling, maintenance and restoration of art works in Italy, authoring the relative reports, and has spoken at numerous conferences and workshops.

She holds courses for universities and international organisations.

Teaching Appointments

  • Dal 2013 al 2015
    Lecturer in Artefacts in Synthetic Materials, Manufactured, Assembled and/or Painted at the Aldo Galli Academy in Como, five-year course for the Cultural Heritage Restoration programme (levels 1 and 2)
    Lecturer for the advanced course in Contemporary Art Markets at the New Academy of Fine Arts–NABA.
  • 2014
    Lecturer for the course in Innovation in Conservation–How restoration firms invest in human capital, at the IVBC–Venetian Institute for Cultural Heritage, recognised by Veneto Region (Restoration of Acrylic Paintings).
    Lecturer for the advanced interdepartmental course Plastic in Art and for Art, at the Plart Foundation Museum in Naples, together with Bronwyn Ormsby of the Tate Gallery.
  • 2014/2015
    Lecturer, practical course in non-invasive diagnostics applied to art, Open Care, Milan, Summer Lab NID4P.