Art, Conservation and Authenticities

One of the aims of the 2007 conference Art, Conservation and Authenticities: Material, Concept, Context, was to explore the (seemingly embattled) position of the term ‘authenticity’ within conservation practice, not so much to progress definitions or rehearse existing debates as to test its continued relevance to a broad range of conservators, examine its on-going application in the assessment of ‘conservation of objects’, and consider the critical potential of its pluralized form – ‘authenticities.’ The papers delivered at the conference, and those formalised for publication here, have engaged these various threads with energy and creativity. Drawn from a range of backgrounds and across various ‘specialisms’, the authors present a range of discussions that offer various responses, but which all confirm the still-prominent position that authenticity occupies in the evaluative aspect of a conservator’s work.