ABSTRACT
One of the more discouraging aspects of the assault on curatorial professionalism during the last decades has been the lack of progress made with regard to consolidating the role of the scholar-curator in the processes of conservation. In the Tate Gallery Report for 1970-2, Sir Norman Reid drew attention to the crucial role of the scholar-curator in conservation and stated:
The contact between restorer and curator requires to be continual and very close. Many of the problems in conservation, which arise from day to day, and sometimes from hour to hour, involve historical and critical issues; they can hardly be solved except in consultation with an experienced curatorial staff of the kind which is only found in the largest galleries.
