Question

For decades, museum conservation of classical sculpture was dominated by the practice of active restoration. Missing limbs and features of marble figures were sculpted anew to match their historical styles, satisfying a public desire for complete, idealized forms. In the mid-twentieth century, however, a consensus emerged rejecting this approach as a form of aesthetic forgery. Modern conservators adopted 'visible preservation,' leaving gaps conspicuously raw or filling them with neutral, uncarved plaster. Proponents argued that this preserved the artifact's historical integrity, preventing viewers from conflating modern additions with ancient craftsmanship.

Yet, this minimalist doctrine introduces its own subtle distortion. By deliberately leaving statues fragmented, visible preservation prioritizes the history of the object’s decay over the integrity of its original design. The spectator’s attention is inevitably pulled away from the sculptor's composition and focused instead on the accidents of time—the jagged edge of a shattered shoulder or the blank space where a face once was. In attempting to avoid historical deception, museums have inadvertently created a new curatorial bias. The refusal to reconstruct does not merely present the truth; it elevates the ruin itself, transforming what was meant to be a cohesive artistic statement into a monument to chronological erosion.

Which of the following statements best expresses the central theme of the passage?