Lucien Smith Quotes

We are similar to a museum. My function is to present old masterpieces in modern frames.

You don't restore 'The Last Supper' by filling in the missing bits - you preserve. You accept the material that has somehow survived.

Archaeology is not only the hand maid of history, it is also the conservator of art.

Most art is fragile and some should be placed and never moved away.

If the picture needs varnishing later, I allow a restorer to do that, if there's any restoring necessary.

Restorers of paintings and pottery follow a code of conduct in their work to distinguish the original material from what they are adding later.

Some of our greatest historical and artistic treasures we place in museums; others, we take for walks.

The future of that ancient chamber remains in considerable doubt.

High among the unpredictable variables that endanger the survival of worthy buildings are the vagaries of taste.

We were totally unprepared for such a large quantity of visitors, and in view of the preservation of the antiquities they being very crowded and in poor preservation, we were obliged to refuse admission until some preparation was made to safeguard the objects.

The most basic task of any museum must be the protection of works of cultural significance entrusted to its care for the edification and pleasure of future generations.

Like surgeons trying to save a life, the conservators and preservers at New York City museums dedicate themselves to ensuring the longevity of works of art for public view.

I went to the museum where they had all the heads and arms from the statues that are in all the other museums.

It is for all these buildings, therefore, of all times and styles, that we plead, and call upon those who have to deal with them to put Protection in the place of Restoration, to stave off decay by daily care, to prop a perilous wall or mend a leaky roof by such means as are obviously meant for support or covering, and show no pretence of other art, and otherwise to resist all tampering with either the fabric or ornament of the building as it stands; if it has become inconvenient for its present use, to raise another building rather than alter or enlarge the old one; in fine to treat our ancient buildings as monuments of a bygone art, created by bygone manners, that modern art cannot meddle with without destroying.

Restoration is a skilled profession. You might even call it an art in its own right, except that it is frowned on to be original. First rule of restoration: follow the intention of the artist. Never try to improve on him.

In public buildings set aside for the care and maintenance of the goods of the middle ages, a staff of civil service art attendants praise all the dead, irrelevant scribblings and scrawlings that, at best, have only historical interest for idiots and layabouts.

I guess that anything we manage to save from history is a miracle.

It is a question in that case of breaking up one piece of art, and whether that piece of art can be as best as possible put back together. So it's an argument to say, maybe that's one of those instances, like the bust of Nefertiti, I think that should be given back [Egyptian piece currently in Neues Museum in Berlin]. It's one of those pieces you look at and think that would probably be the right thing to do.

Our characteristic response to the mutilated statue, the bronze dug up from the earth, is revealing. It is not that we prefer time-worn bas-reliefs, or rusted statuettes as such, nor is it the vestiges of death that grip us in them, but those of life. Mutilation is the scar left by the struggle with Time, and a reminder of it - Time which is as much a part of ancient works of art as the material they are made of, and thrusts up through the fissures, from a dark underworld, where all is at once chaos and determinism.

The 19th century became the age of the museum. Objects were scrambled for, specimens seized, and friezes and antiques grasped.

We have to maintain the Krishnasthali.

My aim is not just to help preserve what is left of mountain life, but to create a centre where people can study and learn about it.

I want the Dead Sea, like Masada, to be part of UNESCO's world heritage.

The modern museum has multiple purposes - to curate and preserve, to research, and to reach out to the public. They challenge us and ask us to question our assumptions about the past or the world around us.

My dream was always to be in museums. It's a big and important milestone and a fulfillment of one of my primary ambitions.