dr. Tonny Beentjes

Tonny Beentjes is programme leader metal conservation and researcher at the University of Amsterdam. Initially trained as a goldsmith, followed by a training in metal conservation, he went to the UK to run for ten years the metal conservation programme at West Dean College. He returned several years ago to his motherland to head the metal conservation programme at the University of Amsterdam. Apart from teaching, he researches historical metal working technology and is currently conducting PhD research into the casting techniques of Rodin bronzes and the development of casting sculpture using sand moulds. The topics of his publications range from early plating and casting techniques to the application of 3D technology in conservation. He has been a Samuel Kress fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts at the National Gallery of Art in Washington and a Museum scholar at the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles. Tonny has been conducting collaborative research with Professor Pamela H. Smith of Columbia University New York into renaissance life casting techniques through study of surviving objects, early manuscripts and reconstructions. Recently he was an Expert Maker in residence at the History department as part of the Making and Knowing Project.