Museum Pictures

[Jona Lendering]

I'd be interested to learn if they really claim copyright?

I have never had problems with museums, but I did receive an angry letter from the representative of a well-known and rightly admired military artist. I had indeed put on-line scans of nine drawings by this artist. The agent demanded an awful lot of money but backed off when I told that

• (a) I had found six of these pictures on-line, where they had been published without naming the artist; it was I who recognized the drawings and added this artist's name;
  (b) that I asked permission for the other three pictures, but never received an answer from the artist's publisher;
  © that I was still willing to pay the normal amount of money for an illustration, and not the outrageous price they demanded.

The agent did not reply. Which is a pity, because now this artist received nothing at all, even though I was willing to pay 9x$40, which is still a good price.