The topical case is that the Dulwich Picture Gallery in London has in recent months replaced one of its paintings with a fake as a challenge to visitors to spot it. They have just announced which it was.
The most interesting finding from this experiment is that 10% of visitors guessed correctly. Which neatly demonstrates that a significant minority of visitors can tell the difference.
But (just about) every other picture in the Louvre is out in the open.
That’s awesome. Thanks for sharing.
Several years ago, I was at my local art museum, and was leaning against a wall to take notes on an interesting painting. I hadn’t written but a few words when a security guard came out of nowhere and told me that I couldn’t lean on the wall. I asked her, “How did you know I was doing that?” :o and then saw a very tiny camera in the corner.
I thanked her for her vigilance and used my wallet as a hard surface.
p.s. A few years before that, this same museum had “American Gothic” on display - out in the open, protected only by a velvet rope a foot or so out from the wall.
Well, up to a point. The Louvre actually has a reputation for being keener on glazing its paintings than most other major European museums. Much in the way that it tends to be less keen on cleaning or re-varnishing them.
One factor that hasn’t been mentioned is that of frames. Those can be important in their own right. If so, that can complicate the possible options. On the one hand, this can make it difficult for glass to be added. Indeed, in some cases, the frame can be part of the panel. But, conversely, some frames were always designed to take glass. Not including the glass can look odd. For wooden panels, another issue can be warping. If the painting surface isn’t flat, glass can look particularly obtrusive. So even where museums have a preferred approach, they can rarely apply it consistently - the decision as to whether to glaze or not to glaze can really only be done on a case-by-case basis.
Looks like a snail or a roll of Scotch tape to me.
This is simply not true, at least not universally. I’ve been to more than one museum with first-rate art where the security guards were, essentially, petite middle-aged women loafing around the various rooms in a rather bored manner. It was not like there was always one of them present in each room at any time, and even if one was there, chances were they were sitting in a corner. I bet there were also cameras in place, and if I had started to mess with displays guards would show up soon, but by the time they’d arrive the damage would already be done.
Try going with a small child–or watch what happens when a group of teenagers comes in. They will follow them around.
Again, the point is not that they’re hulking Special Forces types. They are never going to deter or tackle a true maniac. They are there to make kids–and someone with a wild hair to find out what an oil painting feels like–think twice.
Can I confess that I’ve been partially responsible for a well-known (unnamed) Doper accidentally colliding with a minorish, unglazed artwork in a major European collection?
We were going round the Musée Carnavelet in Paris when we were confronted by a couple essentially blocking a corridor. I did a successful elegant bodyswerve around them. No problem. She, however, trying the same, just caught the frame of a painting on the next wall and knocked it askew. There was a guard immediately to hand and I must admit I was surprised about how nonchalant he was about the whole thing. He obviously realised that it was an innocent mistake and just readjusted the picture on the wall.
Granted I’ve seen guards and curators completely freek out at the most minor irregularities at the various branches of the Tate in London.
When I was at MoMA a few years ago, I was surprised how easy it would be for me to severely damage Van Gogh’s Starry Night before anyone could stop me. There were no guards in the room at all. And this is a work that I thought was nearly as famous as the Mona Lisa.
This thread reminds me of the theft of a Stradivarius last year. It’s a multimillion dollar work of art you carry around with you and play in public.
And it happens from time to time. The Pieta is behind glass now after some looney tunes took a hammer to Mary’s nose. I think it was The Night Watch in Amsterdam that suffered several big slashes. But it seems that museum management recognize something helicopter parents don’t, that the dangerous crazies are very few and very far between.