Mr. Hare mentioned something about how sometimes the best thing to do for artifacts, from a conservation viewpoint, is to put them in a box and leave them there for hundreds of years. I'm kind of miffed that I'll never get to look through a hand scroll and see the whole story, but instead I'm stuck looking at one small fragment, if I'm lucky. But still, I think that implies that these objects are no longer art at all. They are now full artifacts. Art is for people to see and enjoy.
Artifacts are to be studied.