ABSTRACT
Over the course of the nineteenth century, the growing enthusiasm for preservation had acquired a complex legislative dimension. There had been sporadic calls for Monument Laws since the 1830s, but in the period from 1870 to the outbreak of the Great War, the preoccupation with legislation became almost obsessive. This chapter focuses on legislation in three of the great European States France, Germany and Britain. The late nineteenth century produced a wealth of comparative studies on monument protection, commissioned by both private preservation associations and state agencies. The power of the State over public corporations differed considerably, being much stronger in France and Germany than in Britain. In Germany, the conflicts surrounding preservation were more multifaceted. In France passing the first Monument Act took almost fifteen years. In England, the 1882 Ancient Monuments Protection Act did not contain any compulsory clauses and initially only included prehistoric monuments.
