"But I get very tired of hearing arrogant museum people sniffing that
great art or important historic artifacts rightfully "belong" in
museums.
        My apologies to the list but here in lies one of the great plagues of
my life.
        I am a working metal smith, reproducing 18th century and earlier items.
        I have long contended that as we are a human collective, that which is
our collective heritage belongs to all.
        Art or artifacts held privately or in museums should not be the sole
property of any one or any organization.
        I find the ownership of intellectual rights by any one other than the
person who created the work to be an offense.
        That I may be sued by a museum for reproducing a lantern common to the
18th century, just because they have one in there collection is to me
ludicrous.
        That I am denied access to collections because I am not a serious
student ( I only have 50+ hours of studio art over a Bachelors in
Business administration { RIT-1970 } and have been making museum
reproductions for only 20 years.)
        Art and history have to be shared will every one, with out some one
else deciding whether they have the right to it.
        I will probably get blasted for this post, but having been an
educator/renactor I just get frustrated beyond belief at not having
access to information, or not being allowed to make things that were in
common use because of threatened law suites.
                        Tw

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