Authenticity and Integrity in Art Conservation

John Ruskin, described as “a pioneer of…the ‘anti-restoration movement’” (16) wrote that “restoration means the most total destruction…a destruction of which no remnants can be gathered, a destruction accompanied with false description of the destroyed” (qtd Lerner 16). On the other hand, the role of conservators can also be understood as positive and creative, even though it is a collaboration “between the museum and the artist [that] inevitably changes the art” (17). Question What is “artistic authenticity,” and how and why may it be said to be compromised by and/or enhanced by restoration and conservation efforts? Analyze several specific examples of restoration and conservation from the reading set, and use all the essays from the reading set in your answer. Your essay must explicitly use and refer to all the sources in the reading set. In developing your argument, incorporate ideas that support your position as well as ideas that disagree with your position. Your essay must quote and/or paraphrase and work directly with material from all the readings in this reading set. In addition, define and employ key terms that seem to be central to the arguments of your sources and, therefore, to your argument as well. Primary among these key terms is AUTHENTICITY. Other key terms you may wish to use include: conservation, restoration, fakery/falsification, original artwork, cult of authenticity, material authenticity, conceptual authenticity, contextual/functional authenticity; historical authenticity; aesthetic conservators, scientific conservators, reproducibility, time and timelessness. You must attribute any material that you summarize, quote, or paraphrase to its source (using the page numbers of the reading set for quotations and paraphrases). Your own ideas and thinking are necessary and important. However, you should base your essay on the information contained in the set of readings, not on your own life experience, on outside readings (including the internet), or on courses you have taken. Please don’t summarize those articles.