Before 1 August 1989, when moral rights legislation was introduced into UK law via the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (see the section on Copyright After 1989), artists in the UK had no statutory rights to protect their works against derogatory treatment when exposed to the public. The earliest piece in this section, in 1983, presents arguments for the introduction of moral rights legislation in the UK, and other pieces discuss examples of abuses to artworks in the UK and US; in particular the problems involved in the removal of site-specific works. For example, Richard Serra's Tilted Arc, Robert Newmann's Manhattan mural, and Ian McCulloch's Glasgow Concert Hall mural.

Other pieces focus on issues of conservation, renovation and restoration - in relation to works of artists protected by statutory moral rights, and older works not so protected. For example, the cleaning of Jacopo della Querica's 15th century marble tomb sculpture in Florence and legal disputes arising therefrom; challenges to the legitimacy of the cleaning of Mona Lisa; and concerns about the dilapidation of Brancusi's Endless Column. Professional ethical issues and concerns for conservators, curators, artists or their estates, are examined in this context together with questions about the mortality/immortality of artworks.