Restoration master craftsmen and professionals of conservation-restoration, two ideal types

What is the difference between master craftsmen specialised in the restoration of heritage artefacts and the professionals of the conservation-restoration of cultural properties? To answer this question, it is necessary to reconsider four training programmes, in order to understand how the conservation-restoration of cultural heritage has become a profession in France by breaking with tradition. In this particular sector, it appears in fact that this historic turning point is to be explained not so much by the professional claims of existing restorers' organisations in various heritage institutions, as by the Ministry of Culture's political will to reintroduce France into the international networks of conservation created under the aegis of UNESCO.