50 Restoration or restyling? The code of ethics that tells them apart KEYWORDS: Conservator-restorer; professional education; restoration; restyling; ethics. The profession of the Conservator-Restorer is relatively recent and essentially unknown, consequently undervalued in the eyes of the population. Most people don´t know in what this profession consists of, what we do, or that it requires specific studies to do it, being often compared to craftsmanship. The discrediting of the profession is often due to a lack of awareness among the population, a lack of knowledge in what it involves, and also due to the media channels, which often shows work done by people who aren’t qualified to do it as being restorations, these results, besides the poor work, in the misleading of the general population. The term “Restoration” is often used as a synonym to restyle, especially on the furniture field. It can be defined as the creation or recreation of an object by giving it a new colour, a new function or use, ending up changing the original aesthetics of the artwork. Restoration does exactly the opposite of restyling, as we try to maintain as much as possible from the artwork, trying to pass on to the future generations the original work. Conservation and restoration doesn’t create or modify any objects, the work done is based on the existent documentation, as it says in the profession code of ethics. Still, many companies that only do restyling mislead the population, saying that they are restoring furniture, when in fact they are creating or recreating. Therefore, it is necessary to educate and to make the profession known to the public, so that restylers don’t get confused with conservators. It is also essential that restylers know that a code of ethics exists that limits the intervention on cultural heritage to people with studies to do it. The view that the general population has of our work, can be changed, for example, by raising awareness near the restyling field, showing to people what we actually do, showing results, giving lectures at schools and having open days so that people can see our work happening in real time. filipacfsantos[at]gmail.com
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