Naoko Fukumaru
Naoko Fukumaru was born in Japan to a third-generation antique auction house family. Growing up surrounded by fine arts and antiques, She began to experiment with broken objects at an early age, a passion she built into a career. She graduated from West Dean College, Chichester, England in 2000, with a post-graduate diploma in Ceramics, Glass and Related Materials Conservation and Restoration which led her to more than two decades of working as a professional ceramic and glass conservator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Detroit Institute of Arts Museum and other institutions in the USA, Europe, Egypt and Japan. Working with international museums and cultural heritage has honed her restoration skills to expert levels. She has been involved in major restoration, conservation and fabrication projects including The Last Supper by Leonard da Vinci, The Tomb of Tutankhamen in Egypt, Caravaggio and Veronese paintings, The Thinker by Rodin, The Detroit Industry Murals by Diego Rivera as well as working on projects for Yoko Ono and Anish Kapoor.