Evidence given by many leading figures in the Victorian Art world at the enquiry into picture cleaning at the National Gallery in 1852-3 provides a revealing case study of attitudes in restoration in mid nineteenth century England. Due to the emergence of national museums, a critical public, the appearance of European restoration manuals, and programs for the education and ethics of restorers a more modern concept of restoration gradually developed. The principal figure in the controversy was Sir Charles Eastlake, later to become the Gallery's first director, who, after his election, preferred to have his new acquisitions restored abroad, inhibited by criticism at home.