“Reconstruction as a creative act”: on anastylosis and restoration around the Venice Congress

Based on Nicholas Stanley Price's observation of a divergence between principles and practice in reconstruction, this article examines a key moment in the development of heritage doctrine in the 20th century: the Venice Congress. Through an examination of the sessions of the congress, the accompanying exhibition and the drafting of the charter that was one of its outcomes, it questions the views of experts of the time on the reconstruction of archaeological sites. The result is a contrasted landscape in terms of projects and principles and the observation of a certain unresolved uneasiness in the face of a practice which, after the second reconstruction, is justified, to the great regret of a part of the profession, by the development of the tourism economy.