About

Martina D’Amato is Managing Director at Cora Ginsburg LLC and Doctoral Candidate at the Bard Graduate Center (M.A., 2012; M.Phil., 2017). Her research examines early modern decorative arts, with a focus on textiles, in the contexts of 19th-century revivalism, nationalism, and collecting history.

At Cora Ginsburg LLC, preeminent specialists in fine and rare historical textiles and clothing, Martina leads sales to museums globally. She also contributes as researcher, writer, and designer for the gallery’s publications and exhibitions, as well as working as an appraiser and consultant for private clients and museums.

Her dissertation at BGC focuses on the intersection of art collecting, medievalism and Renaissance revivalism, and politics in 19th-century France and Italy through case studies of the collectors Louis Carrand (1827–1888) and the Marchioness Arconati-Visconti (1840–1923).

She has given talks at institutions including the Ashmolean Museum, The Frick Collection, The Met, Politecnico di Milano, and The Textile Museum, Washington, D.C. Since 2022, she has been an expert on the US Antiques Roadshow.

In 2024, she joined the University of Toronto’s research project Textiles in Ethiopian Manuscripts and will contribute a chapter on the circulation of medieval and early modern European silks in Ethiopia to a forthcoming book (2026).

Photo credit: Nadia Vereshchagina