The conservation-restoration profession/discipline: a recent science and its development in Portugal

Abstract

The modern concept of the discipline of conservation saw its first discussions towards the end of the 19th century. Its greater notoriety, however, began after 1930 at the international conference in Rome, organized by the International Office of Museums of the League of Nations. Anglo-Saxon countries such as England and the United States, through their leading publishing activity, influenced the western world on the deontological and scientific development of the conservation discipline. The confusion that derived from the overlapping terms with different meanings in these two countries and Western Europe negatively influenced the development of the profession and the discipline in Portugal-which until then had had a similar historic development within the museum's staff. Herein are presented two tables on the evolution panorama of the conservation movement in some Western countries. The question of the lack of work positions in the Portuguese museum institutions is also discussed.