from The Guardian
Vatican wants £2m to restore Michelangelo's last frescos
go to article

This latest story about the effort to restore a significant fresco of Michelangelo raises an interesting issue. That of the balance between the preservation of a historically significant masterpiece as a public interest issue (even if carried out with private sponsorship) and the private ownership and exclusive enjoyment of the artwork. And if as conservators, we do not take such issues into full consideration, we might run the risk of blind-siding ourselves. Even as we adopt the stance of maintaining professional ethics by insisting that artefacts are conserved irrespective of their (real or perceived) value, we need to take pause and consider the deeper implications of such an approach in the context of finite resources. As much as we wish to treat all artefacts as equivalent, this happens only in the realm of the ideal. In the rough and tumble world of the "everyday", what gives?