European Museums

A. G. Maisey · 20th May 2012, 12:23 AM

I have not posted to this discussion group for about two months.

During this period I was in Europe:- Italy, Germany, Denmark.

I had some duties to undertake in Italy, and then I traveled to Germany and Denmark.

I visited museums in Florence, Venice, Dresden, and Copenhagen, and also had the opportunity to view some private collections.

In all cases I found the curators and other staff of the museums I visited to be extremely helpful and cooperative, and in a couple of cases absolutely delightful.

No barriers were placed in my way, and one curator was actually quite disappointed that because of constraints on my time, I needed to limit my visit to the collections in her care to only one day, or one day and a few hours. She had set aside three days for me to view the collection in the museum magazine (warehouse).

Sometimes I have read comments made by contributors to this Forum, and by other people whom I know, that indicate some difficulty with getting access to museum stored collections. As noted above, I did not experience this. I would suggest that those of you who are fortunate enough to live in close proximity to some of these great European museum collections would be well advised to make the effort to get to see them.

But this does require planning and forethought.

Make your approaches in writing, and present a strong case to support your approaches. Be flexible in respect of the timing of your visit. Make your request well in advance of when you would like to make the visit. My own negotiations with these museums extended over approximately a 5 month period of time.

I believe you will find that the effort involved will be well worthwhile.

Although I was permitted to closely examine, and to photograph everything I examined, I was also required to sign undertakings not to publish my photographs, and in fact, not even to provide copies of those photos to any other person, the reason being that although I had agreed not to publish, any other person would not have signed any similar agreement.

20th May 2012, 12:23 AM	#1
A. G. Maisey Member Join Date: May 2006 Posts: 6,705	European Museums I have not posted to this discussion group for about two months. During this period I was in Europe:- Italy, Germany, Denmark. I had some duties to undertake in Italy, and then I traveled to Germany and Denmark. I visited museums in Florence, Venice, Dresden, and Copenhagen, and also had the opportunity to view some private collections. In all cases I found the curators and other staff of the museums I visited to be extremely helpful and cooperative, and in a couple of cases absolutely delightful. No barriers were placed in my way, and one curator was actually quite disappointed that because of constraints on my time, I needed to limit my visit to the collections in her care to only one day, or one day and a few hours. She had set aside three days for me to view the collection in the museum magazine (warehouse). Sometimes I have read comments made by contributors to this Forum, and by other people whom I know, that indicate some difficulty with getting access to museum stored collections. As noted above, I did not experience this. I would suggest that those of you who are fortunate enough to live in close proximity to some of these great European museum collections would be well advised to make the effort to get to see them. But this does require planning and forethought. Make your approaches in writing, and present a strong case to support your approaches. Be flexible in respect of the timing of your visit. Make your request well in advance of when you would like to make the visit. My own negotiations with these museums extended over approximately a 5 month period of time. I believe you will find that the effort involved will be well worthwhile. Although I was permitted to closely examine, and to photograph everything I examined, I was also required to sign undertakings not to publish my photographs, and in fact, not even to provide copies of those photos to any other person, the reason being that although I had agreed not to publish, any other person would not have signed any similar agreement.