Simon Rollo Gillespie is a British conservator-restorer of fine art and an art historian. He is known particularly for his work with Early British and Tudor portraits, although his practice extends across all periods from early paintings to contemporary artworks. He has been restoring art since 1978, and appears frequently on the BBC Four series "Britain's Lost Masterpieces", having previously appeared on the BBC1 art programme "Fake or Fortune".
Life and Work
Gillespie was educated at Milton Abbey School and after an apprenticeship for cabinet maker Martin Dodgsen and a spell as a viticulturalist in Germany, in 1975 he began his business of restoring and exporting vintage cars, moving onto restoring antiques and early English furniture. After a three-year break travelling to Mexico and founding an English language school, Gillespie returned to the UK and began an apprenticeship in restoration and conservation of fine art paintings. During this time, he completed a chemistry course related to conservation. In 1982, Gillespie founded his own restoration studio, Simon Gillespie Ltd. In February 2020 Gillespie announced the rediscovery of a lost masterpiece by 17th century Italian female artist Artemisia Gentileschi. The picture, depicting David with the Head of Goliath and belonging to a private collector who brought it to Gillespie's studio for treatment after purchasing it at auction in December 2018, was published in an article written by Gianni Papi in The Burlington Magazine. Since 2016, Gillespie has worked alongside Bendor Grosvenor on the BBC4 programme Britain's Lost Masterpieces. The conservation treatment carried out on paintings as part of this TV programme has resulted in the re-discovery of previously lost or unknown masterpieces, including:
a portrait of George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham, found at Pollok House, Glasgow, Scotland. The painting had been thought to be a copy of a painting by Flemish artist Peter Paul Rubens that had been lost for nearly 400 years, but after restoration was found to be the original by Rubens. Its discovery made the news worldwide.
a Madonna and Child painted in oil on panel from the National Museum Cardiff, long thought to have been an unimportant copy of a Botticelli by an unknown artist, which after treatment was declared by Laurence Kanter, chief curator of the Yale University Art Gallery and a Botticelli specialist, to be “clearly” from Sandro Botticelli’s studio, with "more than a bit of it" by the master himself.
The most significant discovery arising from Gillespie's work on the show Fake or Fortune? with Philip Mould and Fiona Bruce was in 2015 when a Pietà from St John the Baptist's Church, Tunstall in Lancashire was revealed to be by the Italian painter Francesco Montemezzano. Philip Mould said of the result of Gillespie's conservation treatment: “It was an extraordinary transformation and on a scale that is pretty well unmatched." Gillespie has been involved in revealing lost masterpieces by Van Dyck including Magistrate of Brussels, and a portrait of Olivia Boteler Porter, lady in-waiting of Queen Henrietta Maria and wife of van Dyck’s friend and patron, Endymion Porter. Gillespie has also worked on some recent discoveries of paintings that belonged to Henry VIII. In addition, in 2019 his contribution to online debates on the public forum of the Art UK website resulted in a painting at the Walker Art Gallery being confirmed as a portrait by Van Dyck himself. Gillespie's clients include international art galleries, major auction houses, private and corporate collections, yacht owners and family offices, as well as museums that do not have their own conservation studios.
Publications
Strong, Roy, Sir, ed.. 600 Years of British Painting: The Berger Collection at the Denver Art Museum Paperback. Metaphor Publishing..
Personal life
Simon married Cristina Rule in 1970 and they had 3 sons. In 2014 Simon married Philippa Found.
