The Past is gone forever. Only reminders survive. Judeo Christian world clings to materiality as a sort of firmness. Yet, what is firm in it when matter, as physics and biology confirm, is only temporary in its forms. However, we use objects as reminders and containers of meaning. If restored to its glory an object can become a token of communication. Research makes possible that we bring back some of the former life to it. We help it by reviving the context. The values it expressed can be thus called back to be examined, learned from, enjoyed or even lived in an adjusted form. The status of the object, its social controversy, its significance, the joy it conveyed, the skill of its execution, - all that can be researched so that the rich and noble memory is extracted for the enjoyment and learning of the living. Too many pianos are silent, - incarcerated in museums only because of their apparent splendour and myths they support. Their true life is sound.
Is it not true that human s have an urge to captivate whatever they find precious and exhilarating? Museums should be hospitals or temporary homes, not permanent exiles.