Laszlo Cser began working in the field as a restorer in 1975. Restorart Inc. was incorporated in 1982 to provide conservation and restoration services for the private, public, commercial, institutional, and corporate sectors. Conservator’s Products Company (Canada) Ltd. was established in 1987 for the manufacture, supply, and distribution of high quality conservation products, specifically Gustav Berger’s Beva® 371 and related products.
In 1989, a fully equipped and climate controlled, 1800-square-foot studio facility was set up and continues to operate at this location. The Conservator’s Stretcher™ was developed and marketed in the early 1990s as a modified traditional wooden stretcher system designed with conservation attributes and made from renewable resources. Conservator’s Wax™ was formulated in the mid 1990s and has been distributed nationally and abroad since the late 1990s.
Laszlo Cser was accredited in 1994 by the Canadian Association of Professional Conservators (CAPC) as a conservator specializing in paintings, was named in 1995 as a Professional Associate of the American Institute of Conservation (AIC), was certified as a Professional Member of the Canadian Association of Heritage Professionals (CAHP) in 1997, and elected to the Fellowship of the International Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works (FIIC) in 2020. He has maintained memberships since the 1980s in the Canadian Association for Conservation (CAC), and International Institute of Conservation (IIC). He has given numerous presentations to the profession, as well as talks and lectures to the public and interested groups to promote conservation awareness.
Dragan Jankovic has been with Restorart since 1989, and established his own Toronto-based practice in 1991. He specializes in the restoration and conservation of paintings and objects in a variety of media (oil and acrylic paintings on canvas, panel, and wall; ceramic, glass, and gilt wooden sculptures; altar sanctuaries and other architectural interiors and exteriors) from the medieval period to the present. Prior to moving to Canada, he held a private practice and worked for the Cultural Preservation Institute in Yugoslavia.
Cailin Cser received her Masters of Art Conservation from Queen’s University with a specialization in paper and photographic materials, and her Bachelor of Fine Arts from Ontario College of Art and Design University (OCADU). She has interned at the Canadian Conservation Institute (CCI) and John Slavin Paper Conservation Ltd., and maintains memberships with the Canadian Association for Conservation (CAC), American Institute for Conservation (AIC), International Association of Book and Paper Conservators (IADA), and the Institute of Conservation (ICON).