Interest in the past and an attitude glorifying it as something to be protected and reclaimed is actually quite old, dating back to the 600s BC at least. I answered a similar question quite some time ago, so I'm going to copy a large part of my previous answer

Some of the ancient Mesopotamian rulers dabbled in antiquarianism (the interest in and collection and preservation of old things because they are old, a precursor to the formal field of archaeology), most particularly King Nabopolassar (636-605 BC). According to Nabopolassar himself,

“When I was young, although the son of a nobody, I constantly sought out the temples of Nabu and Marduk, my patrons…shrines, walls and temples… which had weakened and collapsed because of age; whose walls had been taken away because of rain and deluge; whose foundations had heaped up and accumulated into a mound of ruins—I mustered Enlil’s, Shamash, and Marduk’s troops. I had them use the hoe and imposed the basket of conscription on them. From the bank of the Arhtu canal, on the lower side near the Urash gate, I removed its accumulated debris, surveyed and examined its old foundations, and laid its brickwork in the original place. I established its base on the edge of the underworld. I surrounded the east bank with a mighty mountainous belt….I Nabopolassar, the one who discovers (inscribed) bricks from the past, the one who implements the work on the original, eternal foundations, the one who wields the hoe of the Igigi.” (Nabopolassar Cylinder, emphasis mine).

As we can see in this inscription, which is not the only one Nabopolassar wrote about his activities restoring and recovering his civilization's ancient history, Nabopolassar engaged in several activities which are very similar to the things modern archaeologists also try to do.

He observed and noted the fallen condition of the buildings, employed (or conscripted) laborers to unbury the ruins (one of the earliest recorded excavations). Most importantly, he did not merely loot the ancient remains, but surveyed and recorded them, examining the foundations and performed restoration by laying brickwork in the original place. He also discovered ancient inscriptions and other artifacts, and made a note of these as well.

These efforts were undertaken to honor and redisplay the splendor of an earlier time, similar to what modern archaeologists do.

Some sources:

Diana Pickworth. “Excavations at Nineveh: The Halzi Gate.” Iraq [British Institute for the Study of Iraq] 67.1 (2005) 295-316, esp. fig. 1 on 296 and 298.

K. C. Hanson. Nabopolassar Cylinder, 2012. See Dr. K. C. Hanson, Wipf and Stock Publishers,199 W. 8th Ave. Eugene, OR 97401. See http://www.kchanson.com/ANCDOCS/meso/nabo.html

Here is a good magazine write-up about this:

http://www.electrummagazine.com/2012/01/king-nabopolassar-ancient-babylonian-archaeologist/

Now, to add to this, some of this will depend on which culture is doing the preserving. Ancient Egypt is well known for manipulating and spinning its public announcements in favor of Egypt (such as spinning a drawn or possibly lost battle as a glorious victory, such as the Battle of Kadesh). Mesopotamian groups also display a certain amount of the same propagandistic tendencies (see for example Sennacherib's description of the conquest of Judah and Jerusalem,, where he tries to make it sound like he conquered them completely, but it is clear that he was not able to sack Jerusalem).

In the end, it's not a linear sort of progression from "conquering and manipulating history by stamping my own face on this ancient monument" to "let's preserve this old piece of art". It's up and down, back and forth.

EDIT: fixing a couple links from copied post