Antique Restoration Shop in Queens: Lowy Frames Since 1907

Julius Lowy Frame and Restoring Company has repaired paintings and antique frames in New York since 1907, and today its studio is at 43-14 37th Street in Long Island City, Queens. If the antique restoration shop you need is one that can regild a cracked 19th-century frame and also clean the yellowed varnish off the painting inside it, Lowy does both in the same building.

Most restorers handle either the picture or the frame. Lowy's carvers, joiners and gilders work on antique frames and furniture of all styles and periods, while a separate conservation studio treats the artworks. That matters when a painting arrives in a damaged period frame, because the two jobs can be planned together and the work never leaves the facility between treatments.

The frame side also sells. Lowy keeps a collection of over 5,000 antique, antique reproduction and contemporary frames, and its online catalog lets you browse centuries-old European and American frames before you visit. A free Virtual Framing Tool on the site shows what one of your paintings would look like in a given antique frame, which is a useful step before you commit to a reframing.

The published treatment list is detailed: frames cleaned, miters stabilized, poor previous restorations removed, bronze paint removed, flaking gesso consolidated, losses filled, missing ornamentation replaced, gilding restored and the original finish matched. Missing decoration is rebuilt either as hand-carved giltwood or as newly cast composition ornament identical to the original.

The gilding step is where cheap jobs go wrong, and Lowy addresses it directly. The studio says it matches the color and karat of new gold leaf to the original gilding before duplicating the antique patina. If a relative once touched up grandmother's frame with gold paint, expect that bronze paint to come off first, since it dulls and darkens over the years.

For canvases, Lowy lists solvent and detergent cleanings, lining reversals, BEVA linings and verso infusions, in-painting, canvas weaving and canvas bonding. For works on paper, treatments include dry cleaning, mending and inserts, tissue linings, flattening, bathing, localized wet cleaning and de-acidification. The studio describes its approach as minimally invasive and fully reversible.

The conservation team is led by David Yanez, Lowy's chief senior conservator, who has restored paintings in New York for 36 years and trained in lining under Gustav Berger. From 2024 to 2025 he was lead conservation consultant on the St. Patrick's Cathedral mural project. Senior conservator Sebastian Deregibus has been with Lowy for more than fifteen years and specializes in oil paintings.

Julius Lowy, a European immigrant, founded the company in Manhattan in 1907. On the rainy night of April 26, 1922, his car slid off East Drive near 86th Street in Central Park and hit two trees, and he did not survive. His widow Florence took over with shop foreman Abraham Levy, and the firm went on to work for the New York Public Library and artists such as Childe Hassam and George Bellows.

The Shar family came in through Hilly Shar, a cousin of Levy's who started as a general helper during the Depression and taught himself restoration. He left to found Shar-Sisto with John Sisto, the firms merged in 1956, and Hilly became sole owner a year later. His son Larry joined in 1969 and became president ten years on, and Larry's son Brad now runs daily operations as the third generation. The company moved its studio from Manhattan to this Long Island City address in 2014.

Lowy's clients include private collectors, galleries, dealers, art advisors, auction houses, museums, corporations, artists and interior designers. Its conservators have treated works by Renoir, Monet, Degas, Sargent, Chase, Rockwell, Church, Cole, Bierstadt, Picasso, O'Keeffe and Rothko. That is the right level of care for an oil painting or an original gilt frame with real value.

It is overkill for a decorative print in a store-bought frame. Museum-standard reversible conservation takes time and specialist labor, so save it for pieces that are original, signed or sentimental enough to justify a formal assessment. If what you actually have is a damaged antique rug, Costikyan's restoration plant on 48th Avenue is a few blocks south and handles textiles rather than paintings.

There is no posted walk-in schedule, so the first step is a quote request through the website. Photograph the front and back of the work, the frame corners and any labels or stamps on the stretcher, because those details help the team judge age and condition before anyone handles the piece.

Lowy's professional art handlers pick up from homes and galleries, and the company also offers short and long-term storage in a climate-controlled facility in New York City with on-demand returns. Works that need framing or conservation while in storage stay in the same facility, which cuts down on extra moves for fragile pieces.

The studio is on 37th Street just north of Queens Boulevard, a short walk from the 7 train at 33rd Street–Rawson Street. Lunch is easy along Queens Boulevard toward 40th Street, where the elevated tracks shade a strip of diners, bakeries and pubs, and the Sunnyside Arch over the boulevard marks the start of the neighborhood proper.

For a view, ride the 7 four stops west to Vernon Boulevard–Jackson Avenue and walk to Gantry Plaza State Park, where restored railroad gantries and the red Pepsi-Cola sign frame the Manhattan skyline across the East River. It is a fitting stop after a morning spent with century-old frames, and the 7 takes you straight back to Grand Central afterward.

Address: 43-14 37th Street, Long Island City, NY 11101. Email: info@lowy1907.com. Services: painting and paper conservation, antique frame restoration and reproduction, custom framing, art handling, documentation and storage. Lowy does not publish opening hours or a price list, so every job starts with a quote request and an assessment.

Bring or send photos rather than turning up unannounced with a large canvas, and keep fragile paintings face-to-face with cardboard corners if you transport them yourself. Ask the Karpo APP to plan a lunch on Queens Boulevard or an evening by the water at Gantry Plaza around your appointment.