Mircea Maria Gerard Foundation

Our story

We wish we could say that there was a grand vision when starting the Foundation and deciding on its work — but in truth, there wasn’t.

Many of the great organisations and charitable foundations have been established with the goal of supporting conservation of cultural heritage with big multi-year plans, goals, and budgets. In contrast the Mircea Maria Gerard Foundation has had a very different trajectory.
Immediately after Mircea’s passing on April 3, 2016, so many who knew and loved him asked what they could do to help. People were searching for ways to make sense of what had happened and cope with the shock, to find solace, and to express their grief and care. When Luke Olbrich, Mircea’s husband, began receiving floral tributes from friends and family, he thought: “I should try to create a meaningful way for everyone to express their love and sorrow for Mircea.”
While Luke was grappling with the overwhelming tasks of funeral preparations and bureaucratic details and simply trying to keep himself together following the shock, Daniela Murphy Corella, Founder and President of the Bastioni Association, stepped in to help and guide him. Together they sought a way for people to send their condolences constructively. It was proposed that, in lieu of flowers, donations could support the restoration of the fountain that Mircea had been working on when he died.
At the time, restoration of the Putto with Dolphin bronze statue by Verrocchio, atop the fountain at the Palazzo Vecchio in central Florence, was nearly complete under the leadership of Bastioni member Chiara Piani. Luke and the team approached the site managers with an offer: could they take on responsibility for the fountain’s ongoing care, keeping Mircea’s spirit present in the daily life of Florence?
And so, while funeral and memorial service arrangements were still underway, a restoration project for the marble base and pipes and waterworks was organized. By the second half of 2016, the first restoration of the Verrocchio fountain was complete, and a three-year maintenance program was agreed upon with the City of Florence.
With the remaining initial donations, Luke sought another project worthy of attention. Unsurprisingly, death was on everyone’s mind — as friends and family grappled with their loss and try to make sense of what had happened. The massive panel painting in the nave of the Church of Santa Maria del Carmine, showing the funeral of St. Albert in Florence’s Santo Spirito district, was in urgent need of conservation, and reflected the confused but committed mindset of everyone involved, and restoration began soon after.

The rest, as they say, is history.

What began as a simple humble gesture has quietly continued to evolve into what is now a multi-year exploration of living one’s fundamental beliefs as expressed through art and history — through conservation work that reflect death, birth, faith, healing, prayer, reflection, community.

As one project completes, we plan the next one and are oftentimes surprised how the themes evolve that reflect not only our own evolution and experiences, but also as the world around us changes.
We focus on Florence, Italy and open competitions to the members of the Association Bastioni who are all independent heritage conservators/restorers working across many different mediums and time periods. The Foundation uniquely gives restorers the freedom to explore a project that inspires them either for its value in our Florentine community, as a symbol of what’s on their mind or in their heart, or because they see a great research and conservation technique trial/professional development opportunity.

For nearly a decade we also keep our doors open for new talent to access the hundreds of years of combined knowledge and experience which the members of the Bastioni can offer advanced students and recent graduates in the field of conservation and restoration. We keep a place we call “Mircea’s spot” in the studio in the San Nicolo neighborhood available for a three (and sometimes six) month apprenticeship funded by the Foundation and under the guidance of one or several of the members.

All of these projects trace a unique path of life after loss, reflecting Mircea as a unique individual, and showing how death is never an end, but a spark of hope for new beginnings.
While often suggested that it is important to “move on” after a difficult loss of a loved one, in contrast, we are embracing Mircea’s death fully as part of a great circle of life. We understand that the dead live on, in the memory of the living. And what better way to show our love than to give the gift of being remembered through active inclusion in our daily lives. And through the restoration of publicly accessible art, we can share that love and devotion with thousands of our local neighbors and the millions of visitors to Florence every year.

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