Rijksmuseum decided to put his entire collection to the Internet
ARTinvestment.RU   31 мая 2013

The Amsterdam Rijksmuseum posted 150,000 works from its collection at the free internet access. Since the dissemination of images on the Web does not stop, found in the museum, so they let him be of good quality

While building Rijksmuseum experienced a 10-year restoration and its staff do not lose time in vain and have digitized a large part of his collection - 125,000 works, including the most famous exhibits of the collection - "Night Watch" by Rembrandt and "Thrush" by Vermeer. And what is especially nice, all these 125,000 digitized images in very good quality is available for free download in the site Rijksstudio . In the future, the Rijksmuseum is planning to digitize 40,000 works on every year, so that eventually all of his collection of nearly a million artifacts became available to everyone, without exception, lovers of beauty.

Rijksmuseum director of collections Taco Dibbitts commented on this wide gesture: "We are a state organization, and hence, art, and objects that are at our disposal belong to all of us. The Internet is now so difficult to observe copyrights to use images that it is better to let people work with a picture of "thrush" [Vermeer] in good quality from the site Rijksmuseum than a bad copy. " Site users are asked to refrain from the commercial use of the images, but offer to buy them in an even better resolution - and there really give carte blanche to use them for any purpose. Type them on mugs, T-shirts, plates - on what you want.

Not all such bold as the Rijksmuseum. More conservative museum organizations from placing images of the exhibits on the Web refuse for several reasons. This and copyrights (here Rijksmuseum lucky most of his work relates to the period prior to the introduction in the Netherlands of copyright laws). Museums also want to maintain a monopoly on souvenirs. Some fear that too a good quality picture on the internet scams to spur the production of fakes. There is the thesis of the book of the 1930s, penned by art critic Walter Benjamin: he believed that too often robs the playback operation of its special aura, devalues ​​it makes too familiar.

However, whatever the "but" against the spread of museum images on the Internet, the process seems unstoppable. In February 2011, members were pleased to accept Google Art Project , which allows to make virtual tours of the leading the world's museums. Britain set out to digitize and put in the public domain is all the paintings of the national assembly - Now Online BBC Your Paintings they have more than 200,000. British Library digitized and posted on his website manuscript of Leonardo da Vinci from his collection. the Getty Research Institute, published on the website going Getty Research Portal to 20 thousands of sources on the history of art . The Hermitage Museum has released its application for iPhone and iPad . Etc., etc.

Prepared by Mary Onuchina, AI

Sources : artinvestment.ru