The ISCR (Istituto Superiore per la Conservazione ed il Restauro: High Institute for Conservation and Restoration, formerly Istituto Centrale di Restauro: "Central Institute of Restoration" – ICR) is a body of the Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities and tourism in Rome.
The courses are limited: to access one must pass an appropriate public contest announced by the Ministry of Heritage and Culture.
In this school, they taught art historians, such as Cesare Brandi, and other scientists of conservation–restoration, such as microbiologist Clelia Giacobini.
The institute was created with the aim of promoting the restorer's activity from the field of empirical practice to a multidisciplinary intervention technique based on the joint contribution of art historians and scientific experts.
The first constituent nucleus of the library, of which the main compositional lines have been maintained, was a legacy from Adolfo Venturi then embellished with a bronze bas-relief by Giacomo Manzù and placed inside the wooden shelves of the same.
On 4 March 2017, the branch of the institute named after Michele D'Elia was inaugurated at the convent of Santa Lucia Nova in Matera.
The circle, like that which in figures has no beginning or end, can signify the duration of things, which are preserved by means of a circular transmutation."