Thus, conservation, re­sto­ra­tion and the displaying of paintings for guests began to become a matter for the state. One can also observe a similar tendency emerging at this point in col­lec­tions of natural spe­cim­ens. Within the first half of the se­ven­teenth cen­tu­ry, no­bo­dy would have anticipated that the state would become the owner of any natural history col­lec­tion, even though this ty­pe of col­lec­tion had exist­ed since the sixteenth cen­tu­ry. In the same way, no­bo­dy before the middle of the eighteenth cen­tu­ry would have demanded that the state take responsibility for the preservation of paintings and sculp­tu­re, or, for that matter, the founding of a public gallery.