TANSTAAFL

[SuburbanFarmer]

It's not free.

It is though. It’s funded by a massive foundation, not government.

[Okeefenokee]

It's not free.

It is though. It’s funded by a massive foundation, not government.

It's both.

Finance[edit]
In 1958, a $35-million bequest by industrialist Leonard C. Hanna Jr. vaulted the Cleveland Museum of Art into the ranks of the country's richest art museums.[37] Today, the museum receives operating support from the Ohio Arts Council through state tax dollars. It is also funded by Cuyahoga County residents through Cuyahoga Arts and Culture. The museum derives around two thirds of its $36 million budget from interest on its endowment, which was reported as $750 million in 2014.[38][39] The museum has an acquisition fund of $277 million, from which it draws about $13 million a year for purchase of works for its collections.[40]

[SuburbanFarmer]

It's not free.

It is though. It’s funded by a massive foundation, not government.

It's both.

Finance[edit]
In 1958, a $35-million bequest by industrialist Leonard C. Hanna Jr. vaulted the Cleveland Museum of Art into the ranks of the country's richest art museums.[37] Today, the museum receives operating support from the Ohio Arts Council through state tax dollars. It is also funded by Cuyahoga County residents through Cuyahoga Arts and Culture. The museum derives around two thirds of its $36 million budget from interest on its endowment, which was reported as $750 million in 2014.[38][39] The museum has an acquisition fund of $277 million, from which it draws about $13 million a year for purchase of works for its collections.[40]

I stand corrected.

It’s still an unbelievable experience though. You can stand an inch away from a Rembrandt, with no glass.

[Okeefenokee]

It is though. It’s funded by a massive foundation, not government.

It's both.

Finance[edit]
In 1958, a $35-million bequest by industrialist Leonard C. Hanna Jr. vaulted the Cleveland Museum of Art into the ranks of the country's richest art museums.[37] Today, the museum receives operating support from the Ohio Arts Council through state tax dollars. It is also funded by Cuyahoga County residents through Cuyahoga Arts and Culture. The museum derives around two thirds of its $36 million budget from interest on its endowment, which was reported as $750 million in 2014.[38][39] The museum has an acquisition fund of $277 million, from which it draws about $13 million a year for purchase of works for its collections.[40]

I stand corrected.

It’s still an unbelievable experience though. You can stand an inch away from a Rembrandt, with no glass.

They should probably install a shield.

[SuburbanFarmer]

It's both.

I stand corrected.

It’s still an unbelievable experience though. You can stand an inch away from a Rembrandt, with no glass.

They should probably install a shield.

I’ve never seen so many priceless things that I could reach out and touch. It’s really fantastic.

[Okeefenokee]

I stand corrected.

It’s still an unbelievable experience though. You can stand an inch away from a Rembrandt, with no glass.

They should probably install a shield.

I’ve never seen so many priceless things that I could reach out and touch. It’s really fantastic.

Some museums have learned the hard way that taking that risk isn't worth it once some asshole comes along.

[ssu]

They should probably install a shield.

I’ve never seen so many priceless things that I could reach out and touch. It’s really fantastic.

Some museums have learned the hard way that taking that risk isn't worth it once some asshole comes along.

Usually fine paintings don't have shields and are "on reach". Typically they have just motion detectors that nobody would go too close. But that naturally won't help if someone wants to destroy them. Usually the best way to secure a priceless artifact is simply not to make a big fuss about it: have it there along others with very small (if any) remarks on what the work is and who has made it. Mona Lisa is just so hyped up that you do need to put it behind a glass.



Post-9/11 mentality hasn't yet penetrated the art museum circles.

[Okeefenokee]

https://www.timeout.com/newyork/art/mos ... -vandalism

As the most famous painting of all time, Leonardo’s 1503 portrait has attracted more than its fair share of deranged admirers: It’s been attacked on four separate occasions—including two assaults within the same year. In 1956, the lower half of the painting was doused in acid while on temporary loan to a museum in Southern France; at the end of that same year, a Bolivian national named Ugo Ungaza Villegas threw a rock at the painting, resulting in a chip that was later repaired. The Mona Lisa was subsequently ensconced behind bulletproof glass, but even that didn’t deterred attacks. In 1974, a handicapped woman upset by the museum's lack of access for the disabled spray-painted the Mona Lisa while it was at the Tokyo National Museum; in 2009 at the The Louvre, a Russian woman mad at being denied French citizenship threw a mug at the painting—one that, conveniently enough, she’d purchased at the gift shop.

[ssu]

https://www.timeout.com/newyork/art/mos ... -vandalism

As the most famous painting of all time, Leonardo’s 1503 portrait has attracted more than its fair share of deranged admirers: It’s been attacked on four separate occasions—including two assaults within the same year. In 1956, the lower half of the painting was doused in acid while on temporary loan to a museum in Southern France; at the end of that same year, a Bolivian national named Ugo Ungaza Villegas threw a rock at the painting, resulting in a chip that was later repaired. The Mona Lisa was subsequently ensconced behind bulletproof glass, but even that didn’t deterred attacks. In 1974, a handicapped woman upset by the museum's lack of access for the disabled spray-painted the Mona Lisa while it was at the Tokyo National Museum; in 2009 at the The Louvre, a Russian woman mad at being denied French citizenship threw a mug at the painting—one that, conveniently enough, she’d purchased at the gift shop.

As it's says there, the reason for the attacks is simple: da Vinci's work has been hyped up to be "the most famous painting of all time". If you want publicity, then an object called "most famous of all time" would be a likely vehicle to get publicity. Put a Picasso next to unknown later cubists and people won't notice the difference. Without the hype of Da Vinci, he would be just one of the Renaissance masters.

Someone desperately wanting to get noticed using the Mona Lisa:

[Speaker to Animals]

You can walk right up to the paintings at the Chicago Art Institute. Some of them are really beautiful. The prints you purchase don't really come close to the real thing, though I'd imagine some of them are very good fakes, with the real and very valuable paintings sitting in a vault.