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Life + 343 years

By Howard Knopf

Nicholas Poussin (1594-1665) was perhaps the greatest landscape painter - ever. There is currently a fabulous exhibition of his works at the Metropolitan in New York. There is a prominent ?no photography? sign. I saw a security guard stop someone who tried to take a picture. The Met normally allows photography just about everywhere, provided that no flash is used - which is sensible both for preservation and politeness reasons.

So - I asked the security guard why the policy was different here. ?Because of copyright?, he explained. We had a good chat about this - he was a very bright young man. He explained that the pictures were mostly on loan - and that was why this situation was different. So - I presume that this was a condition imposed by contract from the lenders. That would be within the lenders rights, though the purpose would seem unclear. If so, I would wonder why the Met would agree to the condition.

The management had apparently explained it to him as a matter of copyright.

Call it ?respect for copyright? or perhaps creeping term extension. In this case, life plus 343 years.

HK

Full post as published by Excess Copyright on April 02, 2008 (boomark / email).