Art galleries ban photographs ‘just to sell tea-towels’
A BBC art historian has said galleries prevent visitors taking pictures with their phones so they can sell more teatowels and postcards.
Dr Bendor Grosvenor spoke out after he was reprimanded for photographing an exhibit at the National Galleries of Scotland.
Dr Grosvenor, who presents Fake or Fortune, posted a picture of a waving hand obstructing his iphone’s view of a painting, and wrote: “I’d love to be able to show you how excellent the new Rembrandt exhibition is. But at the merest hint of my iphone, an assistant rushed over to say no photos allowed, and demand that I delete the photo I’d taken (of his hand).”
He told The Daily Telegraph that the rules are in place for licensing reasons, so galleries can sell more merchandise.
The art writer explained: “What museums do is they try to raise the revenue by selling image licenses by reproducing their photos.
“If ordinary punters take photos then they think that stops their ability to do that. But someone taking a picture on their iphone isn’t going to start making up tea-towels.” He added: “Of course, if you think about it, every person in that exhibition these days is a little advertising agent for that exhibition.
“I just wanted to tweet a little photograph from inside the exhibition and show how excellent the exhibition was, so people would go.
“If they don’t want me to do that then that’s their loss. I was in the National Gallery the other day and the only noise you could hear was the poor guard moving around saying ‘No photos! No photos!’. Museums and galleries are often the slowest to move with the times.” Sir Simon Schama, the Civilisations presenter, agreed, and said photographs should only be banned in the case of “obnoxious selfie sticks” which block the view. He told the Telegraph: “There are some obnoxious things that I don’t think should be there like selfie sticks or taking selfies in front of paintings. I wouldn’t mind banning that. But for people to take photos of details of the works of art, I honestly can’t see what the problem is at all.”
He said the ban is “all about copyright and museum revenue and income,” explaining: “The copyright issue is essentially about the work of living artists but not an issue for Rembrandt.
“Dr Grosvenor and I thought Rembrandt would love it, he would see it as a great commercial marketing initiative.” He added: “You can, providing you’re not obnoxious and get in the way, take photos of tiny details of brushwork that you wouldn’t get on a postcard.
“They can be fantastic research tools if you want to see how the paint lies on the painting. I do that all the time.”
The National Galleries of Scotland said: “Photography is usually not permitted in special exhibitions which include works that do not belong to NGS. This is primarily because many lenders understandably require us to restrict or ban photography of the works that they have entrusted to our care.”