IntroductionThe programme consists of 5 projects and a synthesis. In order to make a comparison between the case studies a model of writing ‘cultural biographies’ will be followed as developed in the investigation of material culture and research into the ‘anthropology of things’. Three projects will trace the biographies of artworks that are threatened in their continuity by material decay and obsolescence (project 1, 3), or by relocation of a site-specific work from one place to the other (project 2, 3). Two other projects will focus on crucial stages in the work’s biography: i.e. documentation and knowledge transfer for conservation and re-installation (project 4), and the role of technological research for restoration and conservation (project 5). The synthesizing research takes the case studies as a corpus of practices for the reformulation of a conservation theory and ethics (project 6). To build a bridge between these practices and theory it will use the approach of ‘moral casuistry’ as developed for instance in medical and bio-ethical research.