Conserving the Original: Authenticity in Art Restoration

Over the past few decades debates in the field of conservation have called into question the suppositions underpinning contemporary restoration theory and practice. Restorers seem to make their choices in the light of implicit ideas about the authenticity, identity and value of works of art, ideas that need to undergo a more systematic theoretical evaluation. I begin by focusing on the question of whether authenticity is fully established in the process of the creation of an artwork: namely, at its initial point of existence. If the answer is affirmative (1), we commit to the idea that authenticity is determined by the work’s creator; thus, it is considered a given, exempt from historical flux. If the answer is negative (2), we take authenticity to be a combination of initial creation and temporal change; in this sense the work is considered a ‘historical being’. These two conceptions come from opposite ontological perspectives on the identity of artworks. In examining them we will gain insight into how different conservation narratives can be considered and configured in conceptual terms. One’s interpretation of what makes an artwork authentic will greatly influence how to go about preserving or restoring it.