Licia Vlad Borrelli

She graduated in Literature at the University of Florence with a thesis in Classical Archaeology (supervisor Prof. Ranuccio Bianchi Bandinelli), and thereafter she studied Archaeology at the Archaeological School of Rome and Athens (1946-1950).

She took part to excavation missions in Italy (Locri) and Greece (Crete, Lemnos).

From 1950 to 1974 she was inspector and director of the archaeological sector at the Central Institute of Restoration in Rome. Thanks to her direction were restored Etruscan and Roman paintings, bronzes (including the horses of San Marco in Venice), ceramics and antique furnishings and were saved many works being excavated.

Her activity in Italy was accompanied by the one abroad with conservation and advisory job: in Turkey (conservation of the Hittite Karatepe sculptures, the bronze doors of St. Sophia), Germany (Cologne Dionysosmosaik), Yemen (bronzes of the museum Sa’ana), Syria (Ebla), Lebanon (cave paintings of Beqa), Kuwait (establishment of the archaeological museum), Egypt (Saqqara excavations of the Italian mission of the University of Pisa ), Israel, etc..

From 1974 to 1991 she was inspector for the archeology sector at the Ministry of Culture Heritage. In addition to her ordinay work in Italy as advisor and inspector , she took care of the relationship between the Ministry and non-governmental institutions (UNESCO, ICCROM, European Union, Council of Europe).

As an italian delegate and as an expert she attended the General Conference of UNESCO, she partecipated to commissions and projects at UNESCO, ICOM, the Council of Europe, the European Union. She especially followed the UNESCO Convention on the return of those cultural heritage illegally exported, the Heritage Convention (of which, in 1983, she also had the Presidency) and the one about Underwater Archaeology by the Council of Europe.

She has contributed to national and international exhibitions, including the one on the Horses of San Marco (in Venice, at the Metropolitan Museum in New York, Mexico City, Tokyo, Berlin and Milan, 1977-1981) and the one about Space in Western Art in Tokyo on behalf of the Council of Europe (1987).

She has lectured at numerous Italian and foreign institutions.

Former professor at the School of the Central Institute of Restoration, at ICCROM, at the School of Specialization in History of Art at the University of Rome, at the Faculty of Cultural Heritage at the University of Palermo (a branch of Agrigento), a former professor under contract at the Faculty of Cultural Heritage, University of Viterbo, former professor at the School of Specialization in Archaeology at the University of Florence.

Member of the International Association of Classical Archaeology, of the Institute of International Etruscans Studies , the German Archaeological Institute, the Scientific Council of the International Centre for Cultural Heritage of Ravello.

She was vice president of the Italian Commission for UNESCO and member of the Board of Directors and the Board of Trustees of the Italian Touring Club.

Author of numerous publications in the field of archeology and conservation, she has worked in specific encyclopedias and magazines. Already a member of the editorial board of the Central Institute of Restoration Bulletin and member of the the advisory board of the Art Bulletin and Archaeology Bulletin, she is part of the Editorial Board of archaeological publications of the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei and of the advisory board of the Central Institute of Restoration Bulletin, New Series.

She has published several books: The archaeological restoration. History and Materials, Rome, Viella, 2003 and 2008; Conservation and restoration of antiquities. Historical profile, Rome, Viella, 2010; Ethics of Conservation and preservation of the past, (edited by Giuseppe Basile, Giuseppina Lauro and Almamaria Tantillo), Rome, Viella, 2012. Are being prepared for publication: In the forge of Vulcan. The metals in the ancient world: history, technology, conservation and Mural painting and mosaic in antiquity, history, technique, conservation.

On behalf of the Company Magna Grecia she has edited, together with Elisa and Claudio Sabbione Lissi Caronna, the edition of Pinakes of Locri, in fifteen volumes Rome, Acts and Memories Company Magna Grecia, 1994-2009.

Italian Red Cross volunteer nurse during the years 1940-43 and 1945-46 she has been awarded of the attestation to merits of the Italian Red Cross.

Gold Medal of Merit awarded by the Ministry of Culture Heritage.