THE PURPOSE OF A MUSEUM

It is right and inevitable that museum buildings and displays should continuously reflect changes in public taste and perception, as Charles Saumarez Smith and others have suggested in your pages. Restitution of looted objects or at the very least full and open acknowledgement of their history is also fundamental in this day and age.

But the purpose of a museum should be less open to wholesale change. To debate one needs knowledge. To share ideas one needs to be exposed to them.

The concept of a museum as a refuge or just a place to meet other people is utterly out of context. There are many public places for such activity.

The ability to see and understand great art objects created over centuries is an opportunity to reflect on the human condition which overcomes war and hunger, ambition and conquest, whereby artistic genius — whether painting or sculpture or literature or music — outlives human frailties.

Listening to music on devices is no substitute for reality nor is seeing works of art on a screen. They are introductory chapters to the book itself. New masters become old masters. Let us ensure that museums remain as places to learn about the past so that we may engage with the future. David Lewis

the schorr collection, london w1