Our Art Restoration: Marble, bronze and spelter sculptures and busts, and a wide variety of unique art objects
We have been caretakers of renowned public and private historic properties, and private fine art collections in New England and nationally since 1989. We relish solving challenging problems with fine art objects by researching the materials, structures, histories original makers’ intent, Learning the stories of the objects histories, and educating owners about their treasured objects. We are particularly known for the wide spectrum of materials that we service including the restoration of marble sculptures and busts, bronze, lead, zinc, pewter and spelter sculpture and statues, silver hollowware and French ormolu. 
Our projects range in size from delicate metalsmithing to antique mechanisms and on-site restorations such as The Richard Lippold sculpture Trinity at the Portsmouth Abbey Church of St. Gregory the Great. To view our full range of projects, see Restoration Categories & Institutions. We are professional associates of the American Institute for Conservation, the United States’ leading association of conservators who preserve cultural heritage.
In addition to conserving marble sculptures and busts, our projects involve detailed, skilled craftsmanship. On your left involves silversmithing. Howard was trained a a silversmith at The Rhode Island School of Design by Danish silversmith John Prip, who is known as “The Dean of American Silversmiths”. In the middle you see our civic projects, many of which are fountains. And on the right, links to finely crafted bronze figurines. For twenty years, Howard produced over 250 bronzes with art foundries in New York, New Jersey, Rhode Island and in Pietrasanta, Tuscany, Italy.
The links below send you to, on your left, the many unusual decorative mechanisms on which we have worked. The middle link send you to the objects made from non-western cultures; Oceania, China, Japan and Africa; and on your right, our restorations of antique weapons, this one a Flintlock.
Our process
We develop our plan for restoring of your marble sculptures and busts, bronze sculpture, zinc, pewter, spelter and lead sculpture and statues and other unusual art objects, with attention to how your artwork was made, why it has failed, the work’s historical context, the maker’s original intent, and the piece’s present condition. We then compare the pros and cons of our treatment options including fixing, repairing, and cleaning. With this in mind, we then make a proposal with a fixed price for the work we’ve agreed upon with the option of photographic and text documentation.
To see more about our major institutional work, follow these links:
Yale University Touro Synagogue The Pequot Library Brown University City of Newport, Rhode Island
Every project is different. Contact us today for a free consultation of your fine art restoration needs.
About us
Prior to the creation of Newmans, ltd., Howard, with much help from his wife Mary, created over 200 bronzes of his own sculpture. Howard learned the craft of bronze sculpture by being trained as a silversmith at the Rhode Island school design in Providence, Rhode Island.
During the 1990’s, Brown University contacted us to restore The Rosenberger Medal, a bronze plaque made by The Gorham Company in the 1920’s. Brown then asked us to clean and repair their fifteen marble sculptures and busts of founder John Brown, his family, and other significant founders in the John Hay Library.
Spanning three decades, our projects range from small, delicate bronze statuary and unusual metal objects to large installations in museums, churches, synagogues and libraries.