To touch or not to touch, that is the question!
Normally I am against manipulating an original piece too. But that particular thing was a mere fragment, cut from a larger object (the canoe) -- I mean, it was sown with a saw! You can imagine the kind of scar showing there on top: looking like a flat timber facet, inconsistent with the remaining volumes and surfaces. I decided to become a partner of the tribal sculptor, and turn the part into a whole.