DETROIT, MI.- The Detroit Institute of Arts announces that Ellen Hanspach-Bernal is the new conservator of paintings. As paintings conservator she is responsible for the care of the museum’s encyclopedic paintings collection ranging from early European to Contemporary. Her focus is on the examination, treatment, and long-term preservation of the collection as well as research into the artists’ materials and techniques.

Prior to joining the DIA, Hanspach-Bernal was the paintings conservator at the Conservation Center for the Museums of the City of Erfurt, Germany, where her focus was on the treatment of objects in the Medieval Collection. She also worked as the project assistant for the Dresden Institute for the Structural Treatments of Panel Paintings, at the Dresden State Art Museums as part of the Getty’s Panel Painting Initiative.

Earlier this year she co-organized the conference “The Conservation of Panel Paintings – Experiences from the Field,” and has recently published on the maintenance of works by Dan Flavin.

Hanspach-Bernal received her Diploma in Fine Art Conservation in 2006 from the University of Fine Arts, Dresden, Germany. Upon graduation, she was selected as the Andrew W. Mellon Fellow at the Menil Collection in Houston. From 2011 to 2015 Hanspach-Bernal served as co-chair of the Paintings Specialty Group within the German Association for Conservators.

The Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA), one of the premier art museums in the United States, is home to more than 60,000 works that comprise a multicultural survey of human creativity from ancient times through the 21st century. From the first Van Gogh painting to enter a U.S. museum (Self-Portrait, 1887), to Diego Rivera's world-renowned Detroit Industry murals (1932–33), the DIA's collection is known for its quality, range, and depth. The DIA’s mission is to create opportunities for all visitors to find personal meaning in art.

Programs are made possible with support from the City of Detroit and residents of Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties.