Board members
| Chair: Hélène VASSAL (she/her) Musée du Louvre, France Email: storage@icom.museum Languages: French and English |
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Hélène Vassal is Chief Curator specialised in Preventive Conservation, Registration, Collection and Exhibition Management. Since 2023 she has been appointed as Director of Collections management at the Musée du Louvre after 3 years at the Institut National du Patrimoine as Deputy Director in charge of Continuing Education for Heritage Professionals in France and abroad and 7 years at the Centre Pompidou as Head of Registration Office than Head of Collections Department.
In 2022 she directed the publication of the first French-language handbook on museum registration published. Over the last thirty years she played an active role in the creation and renovation of many museums and storage facilities including the Musée du Quai Branly, the Louvre Abu Dhabi, the Centre Pompidou, the Musée Guimet and the Centre National des Arts Plastiques.
Her teaching (at Ecole du Louvre, Sorbonne Abu Dhabi or Institut National du Patrimoine) and her involvement with ICOM since 1998 (as elected board member in the French Committee, and International Committees ICTOP and more recently SUSTAIN) sparked her focus on the intersection of heritage, collection management and sustainability. It inspired her to develop training programmes on sustainable collections management and be highly involved through contribution to conferences and publications.
| Vice President: Marjolijn DEBULPAEP (she/her) Brussels City Museum – Maison du Roi, Belgium Email: storage@icom.museum Languages: Dutch, French and English |
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Marjolijn Debulpaep has been Curator and Collection Manager at the Brussels City Museum – Maison du Roi since January 2025. She holds a master’s degree in art history and archaeology and is a trained paintings conservator. Her career began in 2001 at the Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage (KIK-IRPA), where she founded the Preventive Conservation Unit in 2007. As Head of Preventive Conservation, she developed experience in advising, training, and coordinating heritage and research projects. She has been continuously involved in national and international initiatives related to collection care and storage management, including the implementation of the RE-ORG strategy in Belgium. Her publications on storage include RE-ORG: Unlocking the Potential of Museum Collections in Storage (Museum International, 2021) and Becoming a RE-ORG Coach: How to Plan and Lead a Workshop to Implement a Storage Reorganization (CCI/KIK-IRPA/ICCROM, 2021). Firmly grounded in museum practice, she is currently leading a large-scale relocation project involving the transfer of the City of Brussels’ collections to a new external storage facility, the interior layout and infrastructure of which are still under development.
| Secretary: Theofanis KARAFOTIAS (he/his) Getty Conservation Institute, US Email: storage@icom.museum Languages: Greek, English and Spanish |
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Theofanis Karafotias holds a BA in Conservation of Antiquities and Works of Art from the Athens Technological Institute and a BA in Marketing and Communication from the Athens University of Business and Economics. He holds three Master’s degrees; MA in Administration of Cultural Organizations from the Hellenic Open University, MA in Heritage Management from the University of Kent and MA in Museum and Gallery Practice from UCL Qatar. He worked for fourteen years as a conservator for the Greek Ministry of Culture, leading, planning and managing conservation projects throughout Greece. He subsequently worked for nine years in the Gulf, Middle East with a focus in Preventive Conservation and Collection Management for the National Museum of Qatar and the Louvre Abu Dhabi where he was Head of Museography and Collection Management section. He has also worked for the Austrian Archaeological Institute missions in Egypt and Turkey. Currently, he works as a Senior Project Specialist at the Getty Conservation Institute in Los Angeles under the Managing Collection Environments Initiative with a focus on sustainable practices for preventive conservation and collection management strategies in museums.
| Treasurer: Alessandra LABATE ROSSO (she/her) Place of work: São Paulo, Brazil Languages: Portuguese, Italian, Spanish and English |
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Graduated from FAAP – Fundação Armando Álvares Penteado, in Visual Communication (1986) and Industrial Design (1987), she took a specialization course in Museology at the Universitá Internazionale Dell´Arte in Florence, Italy (1989). She worked at the Museum of Contemporary Art of USP between 1984 and 1987 and since 1988 she has worked with Expomus – Exposições, Museus, Projetos Culturais Ltda. During these 38 years she has worked in the technical area in collection controls in several national and international exhibition projects, collection management projects and complementary projects in the implementation of new museums or revitalization of existing museums and in technical storage projects. She is a member of ICOM – International Council of Musemus (# 40535), Member of the Board of ICAMT – Committee on Architecture and Museographic Techniques of ICOM (2013/2016) and (2017/2019) and (2020-2022) currently serving (2023-2025) as Treasurer of ICAMT. She was an active member of the ICOM Working Group on Collections in Storage, including the organization of the Conference, and is also a member of Registrarte – Italian Association of Registrars of Works of Art. Since its inception in September 2014, she has also been the technical director of CLÉ – Reserva Contemporânea (Group Chenue-France), effectively participating in the technical operation and in the interface with clients in the area of Museums and Private Collections. She lives in Brazil and she also is an italian citizen.
Board Members
| Florence BERTIN (she/her) Musée des Arts Décoratifs, France Languages: French and English |
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Since 2014, F. Bertin has been head of the Collections Department at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, responsible for inventory, registrar, restoration, and preventive conservation services.
Previously, she was Deputy Director of Studies in the Restorers’ Department at INP. She also managed a workshop specializing in restoration (metal, ceramics) for 20 years and was one of the first consultants in preventive conservation in France. She has conducted expert assessments for numerous museums, especially on storage organization and collection management campaign, and was the first consultant in the Preventive Conservation Department of the C2RMF.
For over 35 years, F. Bertin has provided initial and continuing courses in France and abroad, including the École du Louvre—where she co-coordinates the Master’s degree in Preventive Conservation – registration and directs the Preventive Conservation Research Group— also at Université Paris 1, Inp, Icart, Abu Dhabi Sorbonne University, the French University of Cairo, and in India, Algeria, Morocco, Kosovo, Serbia, Armenia, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, and Indonesia.
Recognized for her expertise in preventive conservation and restoration, she sits on numerous scientific committees (C2RMF, Musée Rodin, CNAM, Mucem, etc.).
| Sandrine BEAUJARD-VALLET (she/her) Languages: French and English |
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Sandrine Beaujard-Vallet began her career at the Institut national du Patrimoine (National Heritage Institute) as head of the restoration department’s art management team. She then went on to manage the preventive conservation, storage, and collection and exhibition management departments at the Musée de l’Armée (Army Museum) in Paris. She was project manager for outsourced storage for eight years. She organised numerous collection projects within the storage facilities and worked continuously to optimise storage capacity and conservation conditions for objects and works in storage. She then held the position of head of the works and exhibitions management department at the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris. In 2017, she joined the Centre Pompidou, where she currently holds the position of head of the artworks and exhibitions management department. She was entrusted with an expert mission by the institution’s senior management concerning the creation of the Centre Pompidou in the Paris region, La Fabrique de l’Art, a centre for the conservation and study of works in the collection, but also a centre for exhibitions through the creation of a temporary exhibition space. She has therefore been working on this major project for more than eight years.
| Sarah BIRD (she/her) Wellcome Collection, UK Languages: English |
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After graduating in Conservation of Historic Objects from the University of Lincoln, Sarah gained a decade of experience as an objects conservator, in both local and national museums and art galleries. During this time, she worked on a variety of storage focused projects including storage improvement, design and decant, as well as advocating for more resources in the field of storage. She worked on the advisory panel for Museum Development North West, specialising in both storage and hazard management, advising museums how to meet current legislation and creating simple, low-cost plans to improve facilities.
Since 2019, she has specialised in collection storage in her role as the Collection Storage Manager at Wellcome Collection in London, where she is responsible for managing on- and off-site stores housing museum, archive, and library collections. Her focus is on creating efficiencies in security control, location tracking and access. Her work covers all aspects of preventive conservation, and she actively promotes passive storage environments and the research into this field.
In recent years, she has become an advocate for museum adoption of the “chaotic storage” approach, improving space management in increasingly full stores, and improving access and documentation standards.
| Cristina FIORDIMELA (she/her) Place of work: Italy Languages: Italian, French and English |
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Cristina Fiordimela, Italian and French citizenship, PhD in Interior and Exhibition Architecture at Polytechnic University of Milan, with a residency grant from the Fondation Le Corbusier Paris, Master in Science Communication at Physics Department University of Milan -stage at Cité de sciences e de l’industrie La Villette Paris- associated ICOM (since 2000) and AICA-Association International des Critiques d’Art, is professor in Museography and in Exhibition design for Academy of Fine Arts in Rimini (since 2023) and in Interiors Architecture and at Politecnico di Milano (2009-2018). She’s expert in science-art exhibitions and integrated communication for various international research institutes, such as Datami-JRC_European commission (2018-2024).
She regularly writes about contemporary museography for various art and architecture magazines and is a member of the international scientific committee of Il giornale dell’architettura and Ágalma, class A journal of aesthetics and philosophy, of which she co-edited the monographic issue dedicated to Accumulation. She is involved with ICOM Italy in the Storages Group since its foundation, accompanied by articles on emerging topics and recent publications.
| Maria Lucia FERRUZZA (she/her) Regional Archaeological Museum “Antonino Salinas”, Italy. Languages: Italian and English |
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Archaeologist, she currently works at the Regional Archaeological Museum “Antonino Salinas” in Palermo and in the past, she worked at the Suprintendence of Trapani, the Centre for Restoration and Conservation of the Sicilian Region and at the Central Department of Cultural Heritage and Sicilian Identity.
In these areas she has been responsible for researches, excavations, museum and antiquarian exhibitions, and projects for the conservation and enhancement of the archaeological heritage in collaboration with national and international cultural institutions.
She was intern scholar at the Antiquities Department of the J. Paul Getty Museum (L.A.) for which she published the catalogue ‘Ancient Terracottas from Southern Italy and Sicily in the J.Paul Getty Museum’ (2016). She also contributed to the restitution to Italy of archaeological works from American museum.
In ICOM, she has twice been member of the ICOM Italy National Committee and she is currently part of the Collegio dei Probiviri. She also collaborated in the organisation of the International Conference on storage held in Matera in 2019.
From 2022 she is a member of ICOM International Working Group on museum storage. She has actively participated in the global survey on collections in storage and in the organization of the International Conference “Museum Storage: Current Situation and New Challenges “(Paris 2024).
She is also the author of numerous publications including: “Conservazione e valorizzazione dei beni in deposito: l’impegno di ICOM in campo nazionale ed internazionale” in Atti del Convegno”Depositi in visibili: dalla catalogazione alla fruizione” (Roma 2023).
| Marzia LODDO (she/her) Helicon Collection Care, the Netherlands Languages: Italian, English, Spanish, Dutch and Portuguese |
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Marzia Loddo studied restoration, architecture, and collection management, developing an interdisciplinary background that bridges conservation and museum practice. For the past 15 years, she has specialized in preventive conservation and collection storage, working with museums in both Italy and the Netherlands.
She holds a degree in Restoration (2008, Palazzo Spinelli) and a European Doctorate in the Preservation of Architectural Heritage (2019, Politecnico di Milano). In 2020, she published her first monograph, Storage Facilities for the Collections of Art Museums: A Focus on the Italian Context, dedicated to museum storage strategies.
In 2021, she completed her postdoctoral research at the Delft University of Technology (Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment) as part of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Horizon 2020 project.
Marzia was a board member of ICAMT – the International Committee for Architecture and Museum Techniques (2022-2025). Based in the Netherlands, she works as a senior consultant and researcher at Helicon Collection Care, a company with more than 25 years of experience in preventive collections management. Her projects serve museums, archives, municipalities, institutions, private collectors, and collection-based organizations in the Netherlands, and she is also involved in major storage renovation projects across Europe. Her work focuses on the design of new storage facilities and the enhancement of existing ones, including storage planning, repurposing, and climate monitoring — covering the full scope of collection care in museums.
| Anna NAPIERALA (she/her) Place of work: The National Museum in Poznań/Poland Languages: English & Polish |
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She is a Senior Conservator at the National Museum in Poznań, working in the Ethnographic Conservation Department. She holds an M.Sc. in Wood Technology from the Poznań University of Life Sciences, postgraduate studies in Quality Management from the Poznań University of Technology, and postgraduate qualifications in Wood Conservation from the Warsaw University of Life Sciences (SGGW).
Her work focuses on the conservation and restoration of wooden ethnographic objects, preventive conservation, and the improvement of museum storage systems. She has coordinated and delivered national and international training initiatives, including RE-ORG programs in Poland, and has participated as a trainer in multiple RE-ORG regional workshops.
| Silvia PELLEGRINI (she/her) Civic Museum of Modena, Italy Languages: Italian, French and English |
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She holds a PhD in Humanities and Archaeology and is a curator at the Civic Museum of Modena (Italy). She is responsible for the protection and promotion of collections in storage and on display, coordinating monitoring plans, cataloguing activities, digital tools for storage management, and the work of external professionals such as conservators. She contributes to the planning of conservation and restoration projects and collaborates on research, exhibition, and heritage digitisation initiatives with universities and research institutions.
She oversees the museum’s storage facilities and coordinates a network of museums focused on storage management. She has undertaken specialised training in museum storage management, including RE-ORG, for which she served as a mentor in 2023. She is the author of approximately one hundred scientific publications in monographs and academic journals.
| Maria del Pilar SALAS (she/her) National University of the Northeast, Argentina Languages: Spanish and English |
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Professor and researcher at the National University of the Northeast, Argentina, since 1996. She is an architect and a teaching specialist with a Master’s degree in Research Methodology. ICOM member since 2010. Member of the ICOM Argentina board (2021–present). Assistant Coordinator of the ICOM CC Preventive Conservation group (2024–2026).
Part of the first group working on the Re-Org Program (Rome, 2008). Part of the first Re-Org project implemented with UNESCO funding at the MACRO Museum (Rosario-Santa Fe, 2011). She coordinated the Re-Org Cono Sur workshop (Corrientes – Argentina, 2023) and ReOrg Cono Sur 2024 Conference (Buenos Aires – Argentina) @reorgconosur2023
As a student, she participated in international courses organised by ICCROM in Brazil (1998), Cuba (2000), Canada (2006), and Italy (2008 and 2010). She has also taught international courses on risk management in Ecuador (2009) and Chile (2013), organised by ICCROM-CCI-CNCR. She participated in the ICOM-CC conferences held in India (2008) and Portugal (2011)
From 2003 to 2009, she worked as a provincial government official in Corrientes. During this time, she oversaw improvements to the storage facilities at two museums: Fine Arts (2005) and Natural Sciences (2006).
| Hui ZHANG (he/his) Zhejiang University, China Languages: Chinese and English |
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Prof. Hui Zhang is now a full professor and Chair in the Department of Archaeology and Museology at Zhejiang University (ZJU), China. He obtained his PhD degree in chemistry at the Ohio State University, USA. At ZJU, he teaches several courses in cultural heritage conservation, such as Introduction of Heritage Conservation and Heritage Conservation Labs. His research mainly focuses on the collection care in the museums, new techniques in the museum storage, analytical techniques for the heritage objects, the degradation mechanism, conservation methods and materials for a variety of art and heritage objects, such as paintings, bronzeware and archaeological woods. Prof. Zhang has published more than 70 peer-reviewed papers in international journals, 2 books on the heritage conservation and 3 patents on the conservation techniques. He also serves as the member of Youth Working Committee of China Association for Conservation Technology of Cultural Heritage, the member of Board of Trustees of Hangzhou Museum, and the member of the academic committee of Sino-French Conservation Center of Architecture at Zhejiang University of Science and Technology.