Over the past century, changes in aesthetic taste have led to a radical revaluation of fragmented and incomplete works of art. This article looks at the reasons behind this change, and at some of the problems it has caused both for the evaluation of pictures and for the mode of their display. Focuses on the example provided by the changes in the presentation of works by Turner from the time when they were left to the nation by the artist in 1851 to the opening of the Clore Gallery for the Turner Bequest, Tate Gallery, in 1987. -- AATA