Per un’etica del restauro

The paper addresses the issue of ethics in conservation, starting from its definition and focusing on two aspects of the matter. The first one is that of an ethic in conservation conceived as a consideration on how to operate. It is developed through a brief historical overview and is addressed focusing on the modus operandi in relation to the system of values which, each time, has been at the base of the process of transmission to the future, involving concepts such as truth and authenticity, and thus focusing especially on the morality of conservation. The second aspect is that of conservation as ethics and it addresses the issue in more universal terms, focusing on the reasons behind conservation, thus highlighting its practices’ ultimate goal and the role they should have in human life, in an economic and social perspective of planetary scale. The text ends with a reflection on the issue of responsibility toward the future. This should guide every action on built heritage even before technical and aesthetic choices, thus allowing to overcome the ethical impasse that seems to mark the uncertain horizons of our present.