Carroll F. Wales (September 15, 1917 – May 6, 2007) was an art restorer and conservator of paintings, icons, frescoes, and murals. He specialized in the conservation of early Christian Byzantine art and worked on restoration projects in the Middle East, Europe and the United States. A fine arts major at

Harvard College Harvard College is the undergraduate education, undergraduate college of Harvard University, a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Part of the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Scienc ...

, he received an art conservation degree from the

Fogg Art Museum The Harvard Art Museums are part of Harvard University and comprise three museums: the Fogg Museum (established in 1895), the Busch-Reisinger Museum (established in 1903), and the Arthur M. Sackler Museum (established in 1985), and four research ...

. Wales graduated in 1949 and went on to restore important mosaics and frescoes at prominent museums and religious sites around the world. In addition to these projects, he became co-proprietor with Constantine Tsaousis of Oliver Brothers, an art restoration firm in Boston, Massachusetts.

Notable restoration projects

Carroll Wales has restored and conserved numerous artworks by some of the world's most famous artists, including

Annibale Carracci Annibale Carracci ( , , ; November 3, 1560 – July 15, 1609) was an Italian painter and instructor, active in Bologna and later in Rome. Along with his brother Agostino Carracci, Agostino and cousin Ludovico Carracci, Ludovico (with whom the Ca ...

John Singleton Copley John Singleton Copley (July 3, 1738 – September 9, 1815) was an Anglo-American painter, active in both colonial America and England. He was believed to be born in Boston, Province of Massachusetts Bay, to Richard and Mary Singleton Copley ...

Francisco Goya Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes (; ; 30 March 1746 – 16 April 1828) was a Spanish Romanticism, romantic painter and Printmaking, printmaker. He is considered the most important Spanish artist of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Hi ...

Giovanni Paolo Panini Giovanni Paolo, also known as Gian Paolo Panini or Pannini (17 June 1691 – 21 October 1765), was an Italian Baroque painter and architect who worked in Rome and is primarily known as one of the ''vedutisti'' ("view painters"). As a painter, Pani ...

Gilbert Stuart Gilbert Stuart ( Stewart; December 3, 1755 – July 9, 1828) was an American painter born in the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Rhode Island Colony who is widely considered one of America's foremost portraitists. His best-k ...

Rembrandt Van Rijn Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (; ; 15 July 1606 – 4 October 1669), mononymously known as Rembrandt was a Dutch Golden Age painter, printmaker, and draughtsman. He is generally considered one of the greatest visual artists in the h ...

and others. From 1957 to 1959, Wales accompanied archaeologist

Max Mallowan Sir Max Edgar Lucien Mallowan, (6 May 1904 – 19 August 1978) was a prominent British archaeologist and academic, specializing in the Ancient Near East. Having studied classics at Oxford University, he was trained for archaeology by Leonard W ...

and his wife,

Agatha Christie Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie, Lady Mallowan, (; 15 September 1890 – 12 January 1976) was an English people, English author known for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections, particularly those revolving ...

, to Nimrud, Iraq to work on conservation of ivories. During this time, he also worked with the Byzantine Institute, an organization whose mission was excavating and restoring mosaics, icons, and frescoes in the Middle East. Wales worked at the Kariye Camii and in the

Hagia Sophia Hagia Sophia (; ; ; ; ), officially the Hagia Sophia Grand Mosque (; ), is a mosque and former Church (building), church serving as a major cultural and historical site in Istanbul, Turkey. The last of three church buildings to be successively ...

in Istanbul, Turkey. During this time, Wales also assembled one of the most comprehensive Byzantine coin collections in the world.Coins and Medals including Renaissance and Later Medals from the Collection of Dr Charles Avery and Byzantine Coins from the Estate of Carroll F. Wales
Sotheby’s London, 12 June 2008, auction records. In 1960, Wales joined an expedition to do restoration work in the Monastery of St. Catherine in Mt. Sinai, Egypt, and in the following years made several trips to work on Icons at monasteries on

Mount Athos Mount Athos (; ) is a mountain on the Athos peninsula in northeastern Greece directly on the Aegean Sea. It is an important center of Eastern Orthodoxy, Eastern Orthodox monasticism. The mountain and most of the Athos peninsula are governed ...

, in Greece. After the devastating flooding in Italy in 1963, Wales helped save damaged artwork in Florence. He joined an international group of art restorers in 1966, to help save priceless works of art damaged during floods in Florence, Italy.
"The Terrible Plight of the Renaissance Land"
''

Life Magazine ''Life'' (stylized as ''LIFE'') is an American magazine launched in 1883 as a weekly publication. In 1972, it transitioned to publishing "special" issues before running as a monthly from 1978 to 2000. Since then, ''Life'' has irregularly publi ...

'', Dec. 16, 1966.'' Later, he did restoration work on the Spanish medieval art collection of the

Deering Deering may refer to: Places in the United States * Deering, Alaska, a city * Deering, Maine, a former town annexed to Portland in 1898 * Deering, Missouri, an unincorporated community * Deering, New Hampshire, a town ** Deering Reservoir * D ...

family in Tarragona, Spain and in the United States. In 1977, Wales worked on murals by

Arshile Gorky Arshile Gorky ( ; born Vostanik Manoug Adoian, ; April 15, 1904 – July 21, 1948) was an Armenian Americans, Armenian-American painter who had a seminal influence on Abstract Expressionism. He spent the last years of his life as a national of the ...

, an artist

New York (magazine) ''New York'' is an American biweekly magazine concerned with life, culture, politics, and style generally, with a particular emphasis on New York City. Founded by Clay Felker and Milton Glaser in 1968 as a competitor to ''The New Yorker'' and ...

described as one of the "founders of postwar New York abstract painting." He spent over a year restoring the wall murals from the

Newark Airport Newark Liberty International Airport is a major international airport serving the New York metropolitan area. The airport straddles the boundary between the cities of Newark in Essex County and Elizabeth in Union County, in the U.S. stat ...

, which had been painted over with fifteen coats of wall enamel. The murals now hang in the

Newark Museum The Newark Museum of Art, formerly known as the Newark Museum, in Newark, New Jersey is the state's largest museum. It holds major collections of American art, decorative arts, contemporary art, and arts of Asia (including a large collection of T ...

Notable Collections

Early Christian Objects - a collection of jewelry, sculpture, bronzes, pottery, and fine oil lamps.Christian Objects Important Single Collection of Early Christian Objects
Fragments of Time, Inc., November 28, 2008 auction catalog The most important part of the collection is its bronze enkolpias-early pendants expressing Orthodox Christian faith. Byzantine coin collection - one of the most comprehensive collections of its kind, consisting of many important gold and silver coins. The highlight of the collection is its more than 5,000 bronze pieces.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wales, Carroll Snow 1917 births 2007 deaths Conservator-restorers Harvard College alumni