The conservation of a serious work of art, whether a Renaissance panel, a damaged old master, a piece of fragile furniture, or a tapestry, produces a record more detailed than the original sale of the work. The conservator's documentation includes photographs of the piece before treatment, photographs at each significant stage, a written account of the work undertaken, an analysis of the materials, and a record of the owner and the studio at which the work was carried out.

These records are held by the conservator, by the studio, and increasingly by the conservation department of the relevant institution where the work has been carried out under institutional supervision. The records are private, in the sense that they are not published; they are nonetheless not particularly secure, in the sense that conservators publish, lecture, and write about their work, with named pieces, in the professional press.

The professional record extends in several directions. The conservator's CV lists the pieces worked on; the studio's published reports describe the work; the auction catalogue that follows refers to the conservation; the next sale describes the condition with reference to the work that has been done. The named owner, where consent has been given, appears in some of these references; where consent has been withheld, the description is often detailed enough to identify the piece without naming the owner.

Insurance records run alongside. A conservation of value is approved by the insurer; the insurer holds a record of the piece, the work, the studio, and the address at which the piece is held. The records accumulate against the policy of the named owner and persist through subsequent renewals.

The work in this category is principally about consideration at the moment of treatment. The conservator's record is essential to the future scholarship and resale of the piece; it cannot be sensibly reduced. What can be considered is which conservator, what consent for publication, what description of the work, and what disclosure of the named owner. The decisions are small individually and substantial in aggregate.