I was looking through the October issue of Racer Magazine,and one of the “In Focus” cars (the In Focus series is a sort of pictorial/tech-brief of various race cars) was the historical 1967 Le Mans winning GT40 MkIV. It mentions in the accompanying text that they were not allowed overhead shots of the car due to “certain museum restrictions”.
My question (get to it already, why don’t you?): is this a general rule for most museums, or maybe just particular to the Henry Ford Museum? And, what sort of items would be included in this “restriction”? How big does it have to be? For example, would anything that is so big as to require an “aerial” shot or suspension above the item fall under this rule?
As always, thanks in advance for any and all assistance.
Just a WAG. This was a full-size car, right? Not a model in a display case?
I’m guessing that getting an overhead shot would have required, at the very least, a number of really big stepladders, and the photo shoot team may even have requested scaffolding, or a crane, or something like that, with which request the museum was unable, or unwilling, to comply.
So “certain museum restrictions”, reading between the lines, might simply mean that the museum didn’t feel like allowing somebody to install scaffolding all over the middle of the display floor, just to get a single photo for a fairly obscure magazine. I mean, I’m sorry, no offense, but it’s not like it was a photo shoot for Newsweek or something… 
I doubt whether it’s a “rule” rule, like the “no flash” rule, is what I’m saying.
Perhaps they mean physical restrictions of the museum? Namely that perhaps the ceiling of the room the car is in is not high enough to accommodate taking the photo. Fitting the whole vehicle in an overhead shot might likely require a lot of overhead space.
Thanks for the input so far. I guess there are a couple of points to clarify: Yes, it is a real, full-size car. Second, there are no physical restrictions in the museum itself. Having been there, I can tell you that the ceiling is quite high, and there is plenty of space around the car itself. Another thing is that the museum apparently has no problems moving the car around, as they even had it outside, in the mud, last month for a Ford Racing exhibit. So, it’s not due to physical limitations of the environment the vehicle is in.
Another WAG:
Could quality over heads make it easy for a someone to produce a mold or form, for copying the car’s bodywork?
They’re probably afraid that if you’re shooting from directly above, you might drop your camera or some other equipment on the car, damaging it.
I’ll second Kamandi. Just as many museums will not allow people to wear backpacks because they might back into a painting, they probably don’t want cameras where they could be dropped on the art.