Museums must have photos of every item they own, Cheerskep, as part of the documentation of their collection ( along with dimensions, provenance, history of restoration, exhibition, etc.)
That's why, for example, within a few years, the British Museum could post hundreds of thousands of images. (BTW -- most photographs -- even ones that have been screened and published in books -- are dense enough to survive several degrees of magnification and still present a sharp image) But so far, only the British museum has decided to make all those photographs available as scans that are large enough to show every detail. It takes just as much effort -- just as much expense -- to make the smaller scans that other museums are offering. And that's what troubles me. Most other museums have made a policy decision to offer less. Why ? My speculation is that they are following the old whore's wise advice: "Don't give it away for free, girls" BTW -- here is an example of the sufficient magnification of a four foot scroll -- allowing the viewer to taste every single brush stroke: http://www.npm.gov.tw/en/collection/selections_02.htm?docno=60&catno=15&pagen o=2 While -- here is an example of an image that zooms big -- but just not big enough: http://www.mfa.org/collections/search_art.asp?coll_accession=11.4000&coll_nam e=&coll_artist=&coll_medium=&coll_culture=&coll_classification=&coll_credit=& coll_provenance=&coll_keywords=&coll_sort=2&coll_sort_order=0&submit=Search (It's the "Night Attack on the Sanjo Palace" in the Boston Museum. One of the greatest paintings from any period in any American art museum) ..... >I'm unsure about this, but if it's anything like the expenses in publishing,a big cost comes from photographing the things properly, one at a time. Whenyou're talking about thousands of photographs -- well, thruppence 'ere,thruppence there... ____________________________________________________________ Be there without being there. Click now for great video conferencing solutions! http://thirdpartyoffers.netzero.net/TGL2231/fc/BLSrjnxPnB8tYjk9FbddBejK6SVnjm 0ZEIZ4pdyANf6w3vgTvB9GZyITwJq/
