For several years, a fund drive had been waged to gather enough money to have the Bangs’ Sisters precipitated portrait of HRH Queen Victoria repaired and restored by a professional art restoration expert.  With the generous donations of our wonderful membership (from two annual conventions), half of the funds were raised.  A generous, but anonymous, donor kindly stepped forward and made up the difference so that the tedious and painstakingly intricate reparation could begin.  In August 2011, the restoration expert, Natalia Nikolayev, came to the Hett Art Gallery and lovingly packed up our beloved painting to transport it to her workshop in Indianapolis to begin the difficult task of restoring the painting to its original condition. 

    Natalia worked her magic and was able to repair the torn canvas in the top, righthand corner and she also reinforced the canvas (from the back) on the entire painting.  In addition, she cleaned the 100 years of mold and accumulated dirt and dust off the surface.  As a gift to Camp Chesterfield, and because she loves art and was so enamored with this painting, she completely repaired the frame (it was in quite bad condition) and retouched the 24K gold gilt edging on the actual frame.  Conservation grade / quality glass was then used to replace the original glass which will ensure that it will not be damaged further by sunlight (UV rays) or harsh artificial light.

    Please make a point to visit the Hett Art Gallery on your next trip to Camp Chesterfield to see for yourself the exquisite work done by Natalia on one of our most beloved and important artifacts related to Spiritualism and to the history of Camp Chesterfield.

    Again, my heartfelt appreciation goes to all those who helped to make this happen.  Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Rev. Prof. Todd Jay Leonard

Camp Historian and Archivist