As well as his marked contribution – during the past two decades – to the world of culture, museums and successful exhibitions, Marc Restellini was also a major pioneer in the scientific area of Art History. First of all, during his studies, when he elaborated, as early as in his Master’s thesis, a catalogue raisonné based on the most recent data processing methods, which had never before been applied to that field of human sciences.

He then created in Paris I – Panthéon – Sorbonne, under the impulse of Professor Marc Le Bot, a third cycle seminar of methodology in Art History, in order to link data processing to the doctoral students’ research. He oversaw that seminar in conjunction with the CNRS (represented by Professor Levaillant) to set up the teaching of the methodologies he had developed for his own research.

In 1997, invited by Daniel Wildenstein, he embarked on the challenge to develop new Amedeo Modigliani’s Catalogue Raisonné. He was the first to establish an analytical protocol so that every new artwork submitted would have to undergo technical analyses, including pigment identification with X-ray microfluorescence, and the use of infrared reflectography, later employing innovative methods like the digital process of “false colours”. It was the first time in France, a private institution would ever create such a standard for a Catalogue Raisonné. With his 600 documentary files on Modigliani’s works as well as forgeries, Marc Restellini created a unique comparative calibration, to which he has associated the use of new technologies as they were developed. Marc Restellini has always emphasized the importance of science in the art history field, making the acquisition and development of a state-of-the-art scientific laboratory, the next logical step in his pursuit.