ABSTRACT
As Muñoz Viñas (2003) has put it, classical theories contemplate conservation as a ‘truth-enforcement’ operation. Although they do not agree upon exactly where that truth resides, since its very inception, the main purpose of conservation is to maintain or reveal an object’s true nature or integrity (see, for instance, UKIC, 1983; Fernandez-Bolaños, 1988; Caple, 2000; Clavir, 2002). Similarly, as Orvell has stated, ‘conservation and preservation (let alone
restoration) have no meaning or purpose without a concept of the real, the original, the authentic’ (Orvell, 1989).
