Abstract
The overview of contemporary art, besides to be made up of an infinite diversities to manifestations and heterogeneous, multifaceted and provocative artistic creations playing with the concepts of temporary and ephemeral, of idea versus matter, between which it is apparent and hidden, is revealed through several inevitable cultural and social agents for its total development as the art market and its commercial maneuvers. In this context the conservation/restoration discipline coexists, which will have to contribute and impose professional norms and ethical criterions before factors that, theoretically, seem to contradict the logic of a guided activity but that sometimes it seems to lose breath before such overwhelming creations. Which is the role of the artist and which are the limits of his activity in the conservation/restoration at his work?, without any doubt, this is the main question  which the present investigation  develops, with the strong desire to find an concrete answer. For that reason, it was fundamental to study the historical, social and cultural contexts of the conservation/restoration discipline, as well as to understand the changes in the artistic context and the entity of the artist. It has also been added an innovator point which remains undeveloped, but that are believed to be essential to establish those limits, through legal norms and different legislation for each subject field. With the goal of bringing dignity to a job and understanding the changes generated throughout century XX, evidence is given to the Theory of the Restoration, the document that has  established, during several years, the foundations of the activity of conservation/restoration and that enables one to be oriented through the complex and diversified conservation/restoration of the contemporary art.