Simon Rollo Gillespie (born 26 May 1955) is a Britishconservator-restorer offine art, and anart historian. He is known particularly for his work with Early British and Tudor portraits, although his practice extends across all periods from early paintings to contemporary artworks.[1] Gillespie has been restoring art since 1978, and he appears frequently on theBBC Four seriesBritain's Lost Masterpieces, having previously appeared on theBBC1 art programmeFake or Fortune.
Gillespie was educated atMilton Abbey School. After an apprenticeship for cabinet maker Martin Dodgsen and a spell as aviticulturalist in Germany, in 1975 he began his business of restoring and exporting vintage cars, moving onto restoring antiques and early English furniture.
After a three-year break travelling to Mexico and founding an English language school, Gillespie returned to the UK and began an apprenticeship in restoration and conservation of fine art paintings. During this time, he completed a chemistry course related to conservation.
In 1982, Gillespie founded his own restoration studio, Simon Gillespie Ltd.[2] His clients have included international art galleries, major auction houses, private and corporate collections, yacht owners and family offices, as well as museums that do not have their own conservation studios.[3][4]
Since 2016, Gillespie has worked alongsideBendor Grosvenor on the BBC4 programmeBritain's Lost Masterpieces. The conservation treatment carried out on paintings as part of this TV programme has resulted in the re-discovery of previously lost or unknown masterpieces, including:
aMadonna and Child painted in oil on panel from theNational Museum Cardiff, long thought to have been an unimportant copy of a book Botticelli by an unknown artist, which after treatment was declared by Laurence Kanter, chief curator of theYale University Art Gallery and a Botticelli specialist, to be “clearly” fromSandro Botticelli’s studio, with "more than a bit of it" by the master himself.[13]
In February 2020, Gillespie announced the rediscovery of a lost masterpiece by 17th-century Italian female artistArtemisia Gentileschi.[23][24][25][26] The picture, depictingDavid with the Head of Goliath and belonging to a private collector who brought it to Gillespie's studio for treatment after purchasing it at auction in December 2018, was published in an article written by Gianni Papi inThe Burlington Magazine.[27]
Strong, Roy, Sir, ed. (1999). 600 Years of British Painting: The Berger Collection at the Denver Art Museum Paperback (1999). Metaphor Publishing.ISBN9780965873321.
