Benjamin Bishop Johnson; Art Conservator, Collector

Benjamin Bishop Johnson, the pioneer art conservator who established the Conservation Center at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, has died. He was 52.

Johnson died Monday at his Santa Monica home of a heart attack, his wife, Christine, said Thursday. A diabetic from the age of 15, Johnson had suffered serious complications of the disease since 1971, including four kidney transplants and amputation of both legs. He also needed heart-bypass surgery.

An adviser to prominent art collectors Norton Simon, Armand Hammer and Edward Carter, Johnson had an impressive educational preparation for his rare field. With a mathematics degree from the College of William and Mary in Virginia, he was among the first group of students to enroll in the Conservation Center of the New York University Institute of Fine Arts.

Certified as an art conservationist and possessing a master’s degree in art history, he won a Fulbright scholarship to study in Brussels at the Institut Royal de Patrimoine Artistique. He also received a grant from collector Charles Wrightsman to study at the Uffizi Gallery in Florence.

Johnson began his professional career in Washington, D.C., as conservator of American paintings at the Freer Gallery of Art. He also restored or preserved paintings at Dumbarton Oaks, the National Portrait Gallery, the National Collection of Fine Arts and other departments of the Smithsonian Institution.

He moved to Los Angeles in 1967 and established the Conservation Center at LACMA, the first of its kind west of the Mississippi. The center provides restoration services for museums and private collectors throughout the west.

“Art is the record of civilization,” Johnson said when the center began. “It is from these objects that we have learned about the past, and it is our duty to posterity to preserve these works.”

During his 12-year tenure at LACMA, Johnson also lectured in art history at UCLA and USC.

Retiring in 1979 because of poor health, he continued to consult and sell art from his home through his business called Artcare Inc.

Although he considered the experience “devastating,” Johnson overcame a Southern California art scandal in 1988 when U.S. Customs agents seized pre-Columbian artifacts from several art dealers. The seizure was an attempt to enforce laws of Peru forbidding removal of ancient art objects from that country. Johnson proved he had obtained them properly, sued successfully and recovered the 330 objects taken from him.

Johnson had recently co-written and produced a film, “Divine Mind,” about the work of Leonardo da Vinci for the Program for Art on Film sponsored by the J. Paul Getty Museum and the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art. At the time of his death, his wife said, Johnson was executive director of a documentary film on the work of local artist Tony Berlant.

In addition to his wife, Johnson is survived by a son, Mark, and daughter, Elena; his parents, C.E. and Mary Lee Johnson, of Hopewell, Va., and a brother and sister.

A memorial service is scheduled for 10 a.m. Saturday at the Gates, Kingsley, Gates Funeral Home at 20th Street and Arizona Avenue, Santa Monica. A funeral is planned for Tuesday in Hopewell, Va.

The family has requested that any memorial contributions be made to the Diabetes Assn., 3460 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 900, Los Angeles, 90010.