"The difference between an artist and an art restorer is that the former is more creative, while the latter requires faithfulness to an original work and artist,' said Anchisi, who is originally from Torino, a city in northern Italy.

Last month, her first art show - a water colour exhibition called "My Green House" was a success. All the "fruits and vegetables" were sold out during the week-long show except "Three Pears", her favourite work. "I plan to hold another art show in September when I have prepared more works."

Her life in Shanghai is very busy: Se is a full-time art teacher, a part-time artist and art restorer. "Because oil painting is not a popular art form here, I have only restored three paintings to date."

But during her one-year stay in Beijing in 1999, she restored seven paintings at the Italian Embassy, one of which was among her favourite works called "Woman with Warrior". The painting was severely damaged by time and weather, leaving the face of the woman blank.

"First of all, I analyzed layers in the painting, then I learned how the colour was made and, after careful and serious work, I got an idea of how the woman should look, and at last I gave her a face faithful to the original one."

Parental support

Barbara fell in love with the art of restoration during a tour to an art museum during high school. After seeing so many beautiful paintings, she was determined to become a restorer, preserving ancient works.

"I told my parents about my decision, they supported me and advised me to the best restoration school in Florence and thus began my career," she said.

In Florence, she studied restoration for three years, but found it was not enough. With her diploma, she went to the home of professor Edo Massini, a renowned professor in the field, and knocked on his door. Pleased with her persistence, the 80-year-old art restorer accepted her as a student. "I learned from the professor for four years, and he really taught me a lot, which I could not have learned at an art school."

Since then, she has pursued her professional career as an art restorer, working on pieces from private collections to public museums, from world-famous artists to relatively-unknown ones.

Dark spots

"Private collectors usually request that I make the damaged part more beautiful, but a public museum would me to stick to the original flavour instead of beautifying a particular work," explained Anchisi. "And I have repaired all kinds of works because even unknown works by unknown artists may count as excellent works."

Over the past decade, she has restored nearly 100 paintings of all sizes and types.

Of all those she restored, her favourite one is called "Parmesan", a panel painting attributed to Raphael, collected by the Art Institute in Chicago. The painting was so dirty that there were dark spots in the back. "I cleaned it day by day, I did it so carefully that every day I only worked a little. After four months, I was so happy to see it clean again and I felt I had paid a special honour to the great artist by doing so."

These days, Anchisi is busy restoring a small oil painting belonging to a good friend. Although it was dirty and has some small cracks, Anchisi is confident of its restoration. "To some extent, every painting can be restored, the problem is that we should do it according to the intent of its creator."

As an art teacher, she gives lessons to children from the third grade to the eighth grade. "Teaching children is completely fantastic, I discovered children are talented at art, to teach them is just as fun as discovering the original touch of an old painting," she said.

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