ABSTRACT

Conservation of historic tapestries is undertaken both in institutional and private workshops in Italy. The tapestry restoration and conservation workshop of the Palazzo Vecchio, which forms part of the Opificio delle Pietre Dure (the Restoration and Conservation Laboratories) is based in Florence. The Palazzo Vecchio is the only public workshop in Italy and it has a long tradition of treating a wide range of tapestries, as well as playing a prominent role in training Italian tapestry conservators. The Italian presidential residence, the Palazzo del Quirinale in Rome, houses its own workshop that cares for its important collections of tapestries. The Vatican Museum’s workshop, the Laboratorio Restauro Arazzi e Tessuti, is in charge of the immense Vatican tapestry collections. The workshop has a long and important tradition of tapestry restoration going back to the eighteenth century. These three institutional workshops are central in the field of tapestry conservation and restoration in Italy. In addition, they actively undertake research in this sector, with each workshop developing a specific approach and methodology.