Irma Passeri, Conservator of Paintings, received her training at the conservation school of the Opificio delle Pietre Dure, in Florence, Italy, where she received her degree in the Conservation of Easel Paintings in 1998. After working in the laboratory of the Opificio delle Pietre Dure, she was invited by the Gallery in 2001 to restore the large dossal depicting the Virgin and Child enthroned with saints Leonard and Peter by the Magdalen Master. Two years later, she was asked to restore the Portrait of Alessandro de Medici by Pontormo at the Philadelphia Art Museum. In 2004 she returned to the Gallery to join the conservation staff full-time. She has published articles on materials and techniques of Italian paintings and on Italian approaches to the restoration treatment of loss compensation. She lectures for the Technical Examination of Art course in the Department of the History of Art and the Kress Summer Teachers Institute in Technical Art History, both at Yale.