Starting an Art Restoration Business

Business Overview:

By starting an art restoration business, you can help art lovers preserve their valuable paintings so they may pass them down to future generations. Art restoration is the practice of cleaning, repairing or retouching artwork in an attempt to return it to its original look. Every effort is made to make art look new without permanently changing it. With this in mind, most art restoration techniques are fully reversible. A famous example is Da Vinci’s “The Last Supper” fresco which was restored using watercolors. Before you dive into this business, however, it’s very important you are well trained in art restoration. If you don’t have experience working in a restoration shop, you can take classes to get practice with various techniques and materials. You could also hire skilled art restorers to work for you. You may run your art restoration business from home in which case you would need a storage room and studio space in which to perform your work. Or you can open a storefront and do all the work there. In either case, talk to area art dealers and galleries and give them business cards to hand out when people come to them looking for art restoration services. If you live in a larger city that is home to one or more museums, talk to the curators, show them your work and let them know you are available for any restoration projects they may need. You’ll find it’s helpful to have a website that explains what techniques you specialize in as well as some before and after photos so clients can see exactly what you do. To increase the value of your service, in addition to restoring art, you could also offer to pick up clients’ art at their homes or offices and deliver it when the job is done. You could also contract with a courier service to handle this service. You’ll learn when researching this business that acquiring all the supplies and materials you’ll need is going to be a sizeable investment. However, art owners will pay hefty sums to have their prized possessions handled with care and restored to their original appearance. You should be able to make back your investment relatively quickly with just a few larger projects. As you can see, this is one of the more specialized business ideas out there but with excellent skills and marketing, you’ll find it’s a business that’s in very high demand among the art community.

A Day in the Life of an Art Restoration Business Owner:

If you operate your business from a storefront, you’ll arrive before opening time to get some work done before customers start coming in. If you offer consulting services, you will travel to potential customers’ homes or offices to discuss how your business can help them and their art. You will spend the majority of your day working on current projects (consider having a bell on the door so you can work in the back of the store but be alerted when a customer comes in). If you have a restorer working for you, you can manage the front of the store while your staff works in the back. If you run your business from home, you can make your own hours but it’s important that you dedicate a few hours each day to working on current projects in order to stick to promised deadlines. You will spend some time marketing your business around town and by placing ads in area magazines and online.

About Your Customers:

Your customers will be art owners and art dealers who need high quality restoration services.

What You Need to Start:

• Art restoration experience (or a staff of skilled restoration professionals)
• Supplies
• Storefront or home studio with storage space
• Website (optional)
• Computer with finance software

The Good:

• Among the art community, art restoration is a much needed and very valuable service.
• You can charge top dollar for highly skilled restoration services.
• If you are not qualified to restore art, you can hire restoration professionals to work for you.
• You can run this business from a storefront or part time from home.

The Bad:

• The work can be painstakingly detailed.
• You (or your staff) must be highly skilled so you don’t damage the art you are working on.

Resources:

• Association of Restorers
• Midwest Art Conservation Center
• Bureau of Labor Statistics on Artists and Related Workers
• Wikipedia on Art Restoration

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