The influence of modern technology is far-reaching and has intruded itself into our daily lives to such an extent that we are in the danger of becoming uncritical of its less positive facets. While many benefits have been achieved through technical advances in the conservation field, restorers sometimes allow themselves to become too dependent upon new materials and techniques. Many restorers have the regrettable tendency to compare themselves to doctors and works of art to sick patients, thereby attempting to place themselves in what is commonly considered to be a higher professional echelon. This inevitably leads to viewing works of art as historical documents rather than as aesthetic objects with accumulated historical significance. All too often restorers, who place too much faith in technological advances and the technological approach to restoration, forget Erwin Panofsky's dictum that a work of art always demands to be experienced aesthetically . In order to correct the creeping imbalance in attitude towards restoration, training institutions should so structure their programs that a balance is struck between the old-fashioned craftman's subjective approach and the modern technician's objective position. The Delta Plan will never have lasting success unless attitudes towards the importance of conservation, especially under curators, change. Too much emphasis in the past has been placed on acquisitions, exhibitions, educational programs, and scholarly research to the detriment of conservation. Optimum preservation of a collection is the curator's first task. While exhibitions, acquisitions, and research are obviously of great importance to any museum which wants to maintain its status as a vital, living institution, preservation and conservation of the collection are or primary importance. They are the foundation stones to any museum's raison d'être.