Historians say that they are abandoning academic projects because of a “tax on scholarship” imposed by museums.
The Tate and the British Museum are among institutions that charge scholars to reprint historic artworks in journals, books and lectures, even though the originals are out of copyright.
Dozens of art historians have written to The Times to say that the “unjustified” fees “inhibit the dissemination of knowledge” and must be abolished.
Historians face bills of thousands of pounds to illustrate academic books with little commercial potential, the 28 signatories say. “We urge the UK’s national museums to follow the example of a growing number of international museums and provide open access to images of publicly owned, out-of-copyright paintings, prints and drawings so that they are free
