The care of cultural heritage has a long history within the traditions of fixing and repairing objects,[10] and in the restorations of individual works of art. Although object restoration activities date back to the beginning of humanity, as a public and professional activity, it began in the 2nd century. In the past, restoration interventions were carried out mainly on objects of ritual use; in Mexico, vessels have been found that were broken and then joined together by means of a seam.[11] Pliny the Elder already mentions in his Natural History techniques for removing murals, a common practice among the Romans who in this way looted Greek buildings. During the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, restoration work was carried out by artisans, but with the advent of the concept of the artist, these activities began to be delegated to marginalized artisans.
It is not until the century that people only dedicated to conserving, maintaining and in some cases reconstructing objects from the past begin to emerge. The fields of science and art became increasingly interdependent thanks to scientists like Michael Faraday who began studying the harmful effects of the environment on works of art. Louis Pasteur also carried out scientific analyzes of painting during this period.[12] However, perhaps the first organized attempt to conserve cultural heritage was the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings in the United Kingdom. Influenced by the writings of John Ruskin, this society was founded by William Morris in 1877. During the same period, a movement with similar objectives had also developed in France under the direction of Eugène Viollet-le-Duc, a French architect and theorist who can be considered the first restorer. Viollet-le-Duc made an extensive study of Gothic architecture and set out to reconstruct and complete the unfinished works of the period. He is also one of the first to put his ideas and methods in writing; as well as being one of the first to be publicly criticized by Ruskin.
The development of modern heritage conservation received a boost in Germany, when in 1888 Friedrich Rathgen became the first chemist to be employed by a museum, the Royal Museum in Berlin. He not only developed a scientific approach to the care of objects in collections, but disseminated this approach with the publication of a Conservation Manual in 1898.[13] Over the century conservation science has become increasingly important in providing information physical, chemical, biological, geological, etc., on the materials and environment of cultural assets, allowing the identification of the causes of deterioration, the mechanisms of degradation and proposing methodologies for the characterization and protection of the assets.[14].
Already at the end of the century, a trend began to give foundation to the practices of rescuing objects from the past, beginning in Italy with the works of Camillo Boito. With the assumption of Fascist Italy, a work of restoration and reconstruction of the country's Roman and Renaissance past began, which created the conditions for the later creation of the Istituto Centrale per il Restauro. In this institution, the best-known restoration theorist, Cesare Brandi, emerged.
The need to establish principles to regulate the conservation and restoration of historical monuments was expressed in the “Venice Charter” or International Charter on the conservation and restoration of monuments and sites, signed in 1964.
Despite the great efforts and contributions of various specialists, restoration and conservation currently continues to be a discipline with an "unconsolidated conceptual body",[15] and therefore the theoretical guidelines that the interventions follow may vary according to the geographical context, the type of object intervened and even the training of the specialist. New professional figures have been created around this discipline, such as conservation scientists&action=edit&redlink=1 "Conservation science (cultural heritage) (not yet written)"), who contribute to the process of studying objects, to understanding the processes of degradation and to developing new materials and intervention techniques.[16].