Her research work mostly focused on Renaissance Italian painters such as Piero della Francesca, Mantegna, Paolo Veronese, Titian, Botticelli and Caravaggio.
In addition, she undertook numerous projects as editor of several editions of her mentor Bernard Berenson's and her husband Benedict Nicolson's writings.
[1] Vertova originally wanted to be an artist, but art school was considered unsuitable for a girl from a "good family.
At about this time, anti-fascist friends of her father's took her to meet Bernard Berenson, who was under house arrest at Villa I Tatti, in the outskirts of Florence.
[2] She worked as Old Master Paintings and Drawings Specialist and from the 1960s to the 1980s, she was advisor for most auctions for Christie's in Milan, Florence, and Rome.
[4] In 2018, Vertova gave the Federico Zeri Foundation her archive of art books, auction catalogs, photos and other documents from her time at Christie's. "