Joseph Godla is Chief Conservator at The Frick Collection. He studied musical instrument making and furniture making prior to his conservation career. He holds a certificate from the Smithsonian Institution's Furniture Conservation Training Program and an accompanying M.A. from Antioch University. He started his museum career in 1988 at the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities (now Historic New England) as a furniture conservator. Between 1991 and 2000, he served as Assistant/Associate Conservator in the Decorative Arts and Sculpture Conservation Department at the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles. In 2000, he returned to Historic New England to re-establish its conservation program and served there as the Senior Conservator for the next five years. Since joining the Frick Collection in 2005, Joseph Godla has conducted a perspectival study of Bellini's Saint Francisin the Desert, initiated a survey of the Collection's picture frames, and embarked on a technical study of the Frick's French Renaissance furniture, which was the subject of a paper at the International Institute for Conservation's 2012 conference.