Keith Bantock, BA, MAC, CAPC

Fine Art Conservator

Keith Bantock was the owner and founder of Art Conservation Services Inc. Tragically, after a valiant battle with cancer, we lost Keith in March 2016. He was a wonderful person and colleague, and is greatly missed.

Keith was an experienced conservator of fine art, specializing in the treatment of paintings; an accredited member of the Canadian Association of Professional Conservators (CAPC) since 1990; and a member of the Canadian Association For Conservation Of Cultural Property (CAC) and the American Institute for Conservation (AIC).

Keith received his Bachelors degree from the University of Toronto in 1978, majoring in art history and studio art. In 1980 he completed his Masters of Art Conservation at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario. He undertook internships at the Royal Ontario Museum, The Art Gallery of Ontario, and The National Gallery of Canada; he then worked at the Canadian Conservation Institute and the National Archives (Library and Archives Canada) in Ottawa before accepting a position as Fine Art Conservator at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia. In 1985 he founded Art Conservation Services Inc. and served the fine art and museum community in Southwestern Ontario until this year. 

Keith had a wide range of experience treating fine art and painted objects, as well as frames, works of art on paper, and sculpture of various media. He worked on every type of painted medium, including oils, acrylic, watercolour, pastels, encaustic, and on surfaces such as canvas, panel, metal supports, ivory miniatures, murals, paper and ceramic. Conserving and repairing wood and gilt frames was also part of his repertoire and he could advise on framing and display challenges as well as storage and environmental conditions for a collection.