retr0brite not so right?

I just had a discussion with another curator about what we've been talking about here. The short answer is the world changes after a machine ends its 'useful life'. You have no control over what was done while an example of material culture is being used. Once it becomes an EXAMPLE of what the tool, etc. WAS, you have to think of the object differently. What you are trying to preserve is rarely new, you WANT to save its provenance, warts and all. -- Using a car analogy, some possibilities are: 1) it is new 2) you make it appear to be new (repaint, NOS parts, etc.) 3) you preserve as much of the original as possible (basic object conservation) So, what we have been talking about about is case 2 If you are an average collector you want 2 to be as close to 1 as possible, since it increases its perceived 'value'. Museums, with the goal of preservation of an artifact as an example of the times that they were used, stay around 3)