Lorenzo Appolonia received a doctorate in chemistry in 1981; in 1983 specialises He in the materials conservation of cultural heritage at the Istituto Superiore per la Conservazione ed il Restauro (ISCR) in Rome. He is the director of the laboratory of scientific analysis for conservation and the laboratory for archaeological conservation in the Soprintendenza per I beni e le attività culturali of the Aosta Valley (as the official department for conservation delegate from the Italian Ministry for Cultural Heritage), and he is also director of the scientific laboratory of the Centro Conservazione e Restauro of the Venaria Reale.
Lorenzo’s experience extends beyond the boundaries of the conservation profession; within the Superintendence, he was head of the department of archaeological heritage and director for the archaeological, architectural and art historian department.
With this activity He developed a knowledge in different conservation process. The direction of different conservation work gave the competences about: methodologies of intervention, materials for conservation compatibility, analysis of environment and approach for the knowledge of the object/environment ratio
behavior, safety in the conservation process and managing of restoration treatment.
The managing of work groups and the national or international direct interaction with all the sciences and scientists involved in the conservation process, gave He the ability to discuss, with attention and competence, in any kind of situation or team, with the contribute of experiences, proposals for solutions or with contacts when the
process need the contribute of very specialized scientists.
Lorenzo’s direct knowledge in the practice of restoration has developed not only in the analytical field, but has also developed with his role as planner and work manager for the restoration of many Roman and medieval monuments in Aosta. For example: Roman Gates (Porte Pretoriane), Roman Theatre, polychrome
facade of the cathedral of Aosta and the Priory of S. Orso, and many others objects diffuse in the territory or in collections.
Since 2003 he has been a contract professor at Torino University, first for the training of conservation scientists and then for the training of restorers. He is also the cofounder and president of the IIC Regional Italian Group (IGIIC) from 2002 to the present. In this position he worked to improve the dialogue between
the different specialties with an on-going discussion about the need to emphasize the equivalence of all scientific disciplines in our field in order to form the most correct approach in conservation.
As head of many research projects over the last 30 years, Lorenzo has focused on the kinetics behind the alteration of different materials. His goal, within these research projects, has been to have an objective evaluation of the conservation for cultural heritage, especially when identifying—with scientific measures
and tools—the relationship between environmental conditions and the evolving alteration of the materials.
These studies are part of a larger program dedicated to preventive conservation of the monuments contained in a specific territory or in collections.
As a member of the Italian National Standards Institute (UNI) for cultural heritage, Lorenzo is also coordinator of the UNI-GL1 and Convener of the WG1 in the European CEN 346/TC for the Cultural Heritage. He is also a member on several scientific committees of national and international congresses and scientific journals and the author of books and papers in national and international journals.