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Alois Riegl, the Austrian art historian and Conservator General of Monuments, was well aware of the limited power of his profession in the realm of historical preservation. The de sire of the historian to study monuments, he wrote, does not in itself justify governmental action to preserve them1. Yet, as Riegl pointed out, many governments had passed legisla tion which proved that they thought monuments worthy of preservation, and Riegl hoped to persuade the Austrian parliament to do likewise. Several proposals for legislation had been introduced in Austria since 18942. To accompany his own proposal of 1903, he wrote an es say intended to demonstrate the relevance to preservation of interests transcending mere his torical scholarship3. This essay has since become justly famous for its discrimination be tween conflicting values involved in historical preservation. The present essay takes up one of these conflicts …