from Scientific Blogging -
Will Mona Lisa Smile More When She's Clean? The Science of Art Conservation
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Quotable quote (from Tom Learner at GCI):

"One of the hardest decisions I’m having to make at the moment is, do we recommend that a lot of people pour a lot of resources into something like sausage casing or bread, which is never going to last as long as a marble sculpture?"

Which is the crux of the difficulty in efforts in preserving contemporary art - not so much the range and diversity of materials but the diversion of professional resources to research and care for something which deteriorates faster than one can understand it properly. At some point, tolerance of artistic freedom crosses over to become over-indulgence. No?

Link via Conservation DistList.
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