THREE GENERATIONS OF BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS
Over the past three generations, Tatti Art Conservation has developed strong working relationships with professionals in the various art industries ranging from art historians, analytical specialists, art handlers and movers, art storage specialists, fabricators, and foundries. Today, these relationships allow Tatti Art Conservation to provide comprehensive range services resulting in the highest level of care for works of art.
A FAMILY TRADITION
The Tatti Family has a long history of being associated with the arts. Steve, Nick, and Zach all descend from a family of artists, sculptors, conservators, architects and bronze foundryman. Alexander Tatti, Steve’s father, was the first Tatti to work in Restoration and Conservation and began his career as a foundryman and art fabricator in New York. Alexander’s brother, Benedict Tatti, was an art educator and renowned modernist in his own right, studying at the Art Students league as an apprentice to William Zorach.
The latest three generations of craftsmen only represent the most recent iteration of the Tatti family’s relationship to the arts. While Steve was training as a conservation student in Italy, he came face to face with the portrait of an ancestor hanging in a corridor in the Uffizi Museum by Tintoretto. The painting was of the famed renaissance sculptor and State Architect of Venice, Jacopo Sansovino (1486-1570). Jacopo’s original last name was Tatti, but had taken on the surname Sansovino during his apprenticeship with Andrea Sansovino. Jacopo’s work can be seen throughout Venice and his life was written about by the great Giorgio Vasari and Andrea Palladio.
ALEXANDER, BENEDICT, AND STEVE TATTI - PAINTING BY DANIEL GRAVES
STEVE TATTI AND ALEXANDER TATTI ATOP THE STATUE OF LIBERTY
Guardians of History, Protectors of Value
Throughout our combined experiences working within the arts, it can be estimated that the Tatti Art Conservation team has added thousands of year’s worth of life to pieces of art in need of care. The responsibility of a conservator to preserve and protect our cultural history is something we value above all else.
Many of the pieces we have the pleasure of working on have great historical, financial, and personal value, and we do our best to respect all of these during each treatment. Just as each piece's aesthetic is different, so is it's history.
Tatti History Timeline
Jacopo Tatti Sansovino
Louise Nevelson, Two Figures. Made with Tattistone
Ben Tatti's Portrait of My Mother
Steve Tatti circa 1975 at the Hirshorn Museum
Nick, Carol, and Steve Tatti.
1486-1570 – JACOPO TATTI SANSOVINO, SCULPTOR & STATE ARCHITECT OF VENICE
1890’S – TATTI GRANDPARENTS EMIGRATE TO U.S. FROM ITALY
1917-1919 – Benedict and Alexander Tatti are born
1936-1937 – Benedict studies at Art Student League with William Zorach. Alexander Apprentices at foundy of anton basky, former modeler for rodin
1940’s – Alexander Tatti invents ‘tattistone’ for Louise Nevelson
1944 – Benedict Tatti wins 1st Prize for Brooklyn Museum of Art’s Annual Prize for his bronze Portrait of My Mother
1949 – Alexander Tatti purchases Foundry from Basky
1950 – Steven Alexander Tatti is born
1954 – Steve Tatti models for Benedict and Alexander's design for Big Boy
1972 – STEVE TATTI BEGINS CONSERVATION GRADUATE STUDIES IN FLORENCE, ITALY
1975 – Steve takes conservator position at the National Museum of American Art, American History Museum & Hirschhorn Museum, all at the Smithsonian Institute
1985 – Steve establishes private conservation practice
1985 – Steve, with Alexander and Benedict, restore The surface patina of The Statue of Liberty
1985-2010’s – Steve establishes thriving art conservation business with clients including galleries, art dealers, museums, collectors, municipalities and institutions.
1993 – Steve and team restore the Hildreth Meiere Medallions over Rockefeller Center
2003-2009 – Steve and team restore fire damaged collections at St. John the Divine
2005 – Tatti family visits Italy and pose with bust of Jacopo Tatti Sansovino
2008 – Steve and his team remove & restore JFK American Airline’s Carybe Murals
2010 – Both sons Nick and Zach Tatti Begin Taking Projects at the Tatti studio
2012 – Nick Graduates College and begins working for auction houses in New York
2013 – Zach GRADUATES COLLEGE AND BEGINS WORKING Full Time at Tatti Art Conservation
Zach and Steve Tatti
2014 – Steve and Zach Tatti work on restoring the Obolesik in central Park, NYC.
2014 – Nick Leaves Sotheby's and Begins working full time at Tatti Art Conservation
2015 – Tatti Art Conservation Takes on Restoration of St.Paul for St. Paul's Chapel in Lower Manhattan