TEFAF Museum Restoration Fund
The TEFAF Museum Restoration Fund (TMRF) was established in 2012 in order to support and promote the professional restoration and related scholarly research of significant museum artworks. Championing art in all its forms, applications for its grants are open to public museums from all over the world and artworks from any age. Each year, a maximum of €50.000 will be allocated to projects. The Committee of independent experts usually selects two winners to receive each € 25,000 to support their restoration project.
TEFAF Museum Restoration Fund 2026
Applications for the TEFAF Museum Restoration Fund will open in July, 2025. Please pre-register via this form to not miss any news on the application going live. In case you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to Coco Bannenberg via [email protected].
Please find the TMRF Terms, Conditions & Guidelines for 2025 here.
TEFAF Museum Restoration Fund Announces Musée Condé, Château de Chantilly, as it's 2025 Beneficiary
The European Fine Art Foundation (TEFAF) has announced that the Musée Condé, Château de Chantilly, is the recipient of this year’s TEFAF Museum Restoration Fund (TMRF) in Maastricht. With TEFAF’s funding, the Musée Condé will restore the Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry, one of the most important illuminated manuscripts of the Middle Ages.
Often considered the ‘Mona Lisa’ of prayer books and a true medieval icon, the Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry cannot be displayed outside Chantilly due to the conditions imposed by the bequest of the Duke d’Aumale. Additionally, because of its fragility and value, it has never been available for public viewing for decades. The manuscript’s restoration now allows for the display of its legendary calendar, which will be detached from the binding and featured in an upcoming exhibition at the Musée Condé, alongside exceptional national and international loans that place it in its historical context and demonstrate its enduring influence from the 15thcentury to the present day. This exhibition–from June 7 to October 5, 2025.
Mathieu Deldicque, Director of the Musée Condé, Château de Chantilly, commented, “It is a great honor for the Musée Condé to receive the TEFAF Museum Restoration Fund. The restoration of the world's most famous medieval manuscript with the support of the world's most prestigious art fair truly makes sense, and it is a great opportunity to showcase one of humanity's treasures and preserve it for future generations.”
Rachel Kaminsky, head of the TEFAF Museum Restoration Fund committee, commented, “The Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry is one of the most celebrated masterpieces of Western art—an extraordinary convergence of beauty, craftsmanship, and rarity. This once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to contribute to the manuscript’s conservation persuaded the TMRF committee to waive a common consideration: that TEFAF be a leading or sole project sponsor.”
TEFAF will again host a TMRF Talk presented by ICOM-CC, powered by Aon, this year on Saturday, March 15, at 1PM during TEFAF Maastricht 2025.
The committee
The applications are reviewed and selected by an independent panel of experts - since 2021 the panel includes:
Rachel Kaminsky | Private art dealer from New York and former Head of Old Master Paintings at Christie’s. |
Dr. Kenson Kwok | Founder and former Director of the Asian Civilisations Museum and the Peranakan Museum in Singapore. |
Carol Pottasch | Senior restorer/conservator from the Mauritshuis, The Hague. |
Dr. Ashok Roy | Museum scientist, leading international expert on the materials and techniques of European Old Master Paintings, and former Director of Collections at the National Gallery, London. |
Sir Nicholas Penny | Art historian, author, and former Director of the National Gallery, London. |
TEFAF Museum Restoration Fund 2024 Winners
TEFAF has announced that the National Gallery of Ireland (Dublin, Ireland) and the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art (Connecticut, USA) are the recipients of this year’s TEFAF Museum Restoration Fund (TMRF), an annual grant created in support of the international art community’s vital work to preserve artistic and cultural heritage.
The National Gallery of Ireland has received funding from TEFAF to restore Ludovico Mazzolino's (c. 1480 - c. 1530) The Crossing of the Red Sea (1521), which has been part of its collection for over a century. This biblical artwork is remarkable for its size and rarity and because it departs from the conventional rules of perspective. A large print of the colorful painting featured as an eye catching wall in the TEFAF Museum Restoration Fund booth during TEFAF Maastricht 2024. Over 20 Museum groups were welcomed at this booth for a coffee welcome or afternoon event.
The Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art in Hartford, Connecticut, has received funding from TEFAF to restore Venus with a Nymph and Satyr (1600), a marble sculpture by Pietro Francavilla (1548 – 1615) with an intriguing history. During TEFAF New York 2024, a presentation in collaboration with Lead Partner Bank of America and the University of Delaware under the theme A Dedication to Conservation.
Please (re)watch the TEFAF Maastricht and New York Programming Talks on Conservation via the links.
Please find the Press Release on these 2024 winners here.
