Giovanni Urbani, the director of Italy's state institute for art restoration, focuses on maintenance in his war against the effects of time, history and the elements on art. His pilot program includes an inventory of all the cultural evidence, a record of environmental factors bearing on these works, and proposals for prophylactic and curative measures for their conservation. Umbria was chosen as the first area to be inventoried. The program endeavors to determine where the works are, what the cause of deterioration may be, and what steps are needed to arrest decay. The overview of Urbani's policies may be termed programmed conservation. -- AATA