ABSTRACT
In the past, conservation and restoration were tasks picked up by painters looking for extra work, and they had the habit of often doing a good deal of in-painting and over-painting. The shift from the term Restoration to the term Conservation already says significant things about the evolving ethics of the field. An important influence in the new ethics in conservation arrived from the archeological field, where early twentieth-century reconstructions of important sites had produced highly speculative interpretations and significant destruction to the actual material in the field. In the middle of the Second World War, the bizarre story of Lothar Malskat and his restorations of the frescoes of the Marienkirche in the city of Lubeck serves as such an example. A Professor Fey, an expert on German medieval churches, and his son were hired to conduct the restoration. The team had previously worked with a young painter, Lothar Malskat.
