We Need to Leave Some Work for Future Generations

In the last few months of 2011, Segolene Bergeon Langle and Jean-Pierre Cuzin, two members of the advisory committee overseeing the Louvre’s restoration of Leonardo da Vinci’s “Virgin and Child with St. Anne”, resigned in protest of the way that the project had been conducted.
According to a report in the New York Times (“Leonardo Painting’s Restoration Bitterly Divides Art Experts”, by Elaine Sciolino, January 4, 2012), the Louvre is under pressure to attract audiences with blockbuster shows for which masterpieces from its collection are often spruced up. As “Virgin and Child with St. Anne” is to be part of an exhibit that opens in March, the implication is that the Louvre let economic concerns drive its conservation policy– despite the Louvre’s assertions that the cleaning was necessary and that the dispute is solely about aesthetics.
Bergeon Langle has said that “despite great progress in our competence we need to be driven by modesty. Better and more controllable materials are yet to be discovered. We need to leave some work for future generations.” While her remark may be true about the treatment of masterpieces, with all of the lesser known art works in need of treatment, is there not something a bit disingenuous about it?