Boston’s famed Old North Church is an icon of American history, so when the church wanted to restore a set of 400-year-old angel statues in 2023, it needed to be careful in choosing who would do the work. “They’re the oldest things in the Old North Church. They hadn’t been restored in 300 years until we did it,” said David J. Manzi, CEO and founder of Woburn-based Manzi Appraisers & Restoration, which carried out that delicate task.
At the company’s restoration lab, the team gently cleaned, added minor infill, and painted the four statues. In addition, two of the angels had lost the trumpets they were holding, so the team also fabricated two new ones and painted them to match the historic-looking patina of the originals. While the Old North Church project garnered Manzi Appraisers & Restoration a lot of attention, it’s only one of the countless restoration, appraisal, preservation, and consignment services that the company has provided to collectors, art dealers, designers, decorators, insurance companies, museums, churches, municipalities, and individual owners.
Now, Manzi Appraisers & Restoration has also opened Manzi Marketplace, a more than 3,500-square-foot curated consignment showroom featuring furniture, art, decorative objects, collectibles, and other pieces comprising more than 1 million individual items in an always-changing inventory. “We have Steinway pianos, we have autographed baseballs, we have Chanel bags, we have antiques,” Manzi says. “It’s really eclectic and cool.”
It’s just one element of the incredible growth that Manzi Appraisers & Restoration has experienced since becoming an LLC in 2021. That growth also includes opening its flagship office and restoration studios in Woburn and opening an office in Boston. “We’re one of the busiest insurance-related restoration companies in New England and also one of the fastest-growing appraisal businesses in New England,” Manzi says, adding that although there are bigger companies, Manzi Appraisers & Restoration can take an object and do everything “from restore it to appraise it to sell it.”
That growth is especially incredible considering Manzi started the business as a post-retirement appraisal venture. He’d already served in the Marines, earned a degree in American history and an MBA, and spent 20 years working for a restoration company. But a traditional retirement wasn’t in the cards, and the business started to expand almost immediately. “I’m not good at golf,” he quips of his not-quite retirement. “I keep changing and wanting to grow things.”
In just five years, his “small but mighty” team has gotten major attention, not only for restoring the Old North Church angels, but also for scheduling an auction of Karen Read’s black Lexus SUV (which sold privately before the auction could take place). “The media was there from Boston, New England, the BBC, TMZ,” Manzi says. Despite its knack for grabbing headlines, Manzi Appraisers & Restoration’s bread and butter is in appraisal and restoration services, especially working with insurance companies to determine the value of lost or damaged objects. They can also help people restore items that have been damaged by fire, smoke, water, natural disasters, mold, and even theft.
“It’s important to bring something back to life that’s been damaged and has been a keepsake for families throughout the years,” Manzi says. “We’ve worked on items that five, six, seven generations have passed down to the next generation, and unfortunately things have happened to them over the years. We just restore the best we can to the original.” Their work tackles art, antiques, sculpture, books, paper, frames, mirrors, furniture, and other objects. The company even appraised a teddy bear that once belonged to a Holocaust survivor whose mother, Margaret, sewed it while forced to work as a seamstress in the Terezín concentration camp. The family credits the toy with saving them from being deported to a death camp. The bear was later donated to the future Holocaust Museum Boston, which is slated to open next year.
“It was a tremendous, sentimental appraisal,” Manzi says. While Manzi’s immediate goal for the company is to establish the new Manzi Marketplace and continue the success of the restoration and appraisal business, he hasn’t ruled out other areas of expansion, such as building, construction, automobiles, design, and decorating. It’s a big leap, but Manzi’s confident that with the right people, success will follow. “You’ve got to take chances,” he says. “You’ve got to take opportunities.”