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Dear Friends,

We are happy to announce the conclusion of the second Mircea Maria Gerard Fund project which ha seen the magnificent 18^th century oil painting Nativity, by Francesco Gambacciani, lovingly conserved and restored by Nicholas Castelli and Natalia Materassi.  The Nativity was removed from its altar niche at the Basilica del Carmine in late October 2018 and transported to the labs of the Associazione Bastioni where conservation/restoration treatments where undertaken under the direction of project managers Daniela Murphy Corella ACR and Caterina Canetti. The entire project was approved and supervised by art historian Maria Maugeri from the Florentine Superintendency for Cultural Heritage.

The Nativity is now back at the Basilica del Carmine, standing before the Funeral of Saint Albert by B. Monaldi 1603, the first project adopted by the Fund in 2017.

Life and death now stand before each other under the Fund’s name, a reminder of the eternal cycle of life and how in its perfect beauty it spirals on, regardless of the starry universe called mankind.  

On the 5th of April 2019 we shall be holding a press conference for the Nativity project at the City Town Hall of Florence - Palazzo Vecchio, followed by an evening cocktail and brief presentation at the magnificent venue of Palazzo San Niccolò. A small commemorative plaque in memory of Mircea will be placed next to the Nativity painting. The plaque reads:

Restored by the Associazione Bastioni in loving memory of Mircea Maria (1976-2016)

My dear husband, daily you are a light in my, and all of our hearts.

Mircea Maria Gerard Fund

Hopefully many of the generous and kind donors who have contributed to our second project will be able to join us in Florence on the 5^th-6^th of April.

For those of you who are interested in knowing more about the technical execution of the conservation/restoration treatments and the criteria used to create the project, please visit the F. Gambacciani Page on the pages section of this site.

A heartfelt thank you to all the professionals who made this project possible.

Nativity by F. Gambacciani, before and after conservation and restoration treatments