Museum boom 'makes no sense'
The Times, London, 2001-12-20

An Oxford academic said yesterday that Britain was establishing too many 
museums and expanding collections too quickly — even though existing ones 
faced serious financial problems.
Keith Thomson, director of the Oxford University Museum, said that the 
number of museums was increasing at a rate of at least one a month. “It 
would be folly, except in rare cases, to create more museums,” he said. “We 
already have more than we can afford, larger collections than we can 
sensibly sustain, some collections that we do not need.”
In Treasures on Earth, to be published by Faber & Faber next month, 
Professor Thomson argues that Britain, which has about 2,500 museums, 
should call a halt to museum expansion. “If I take off my museum hat and 
put on my taxpayer’s hat, I’d have to put police on the street, the health 
service and education ahead of museums,” he said.
Professor Thomson, 63, heads a museum with the largest natural history 
collection outside London. Public institutions in Britain, he said, already 
have more than a billion exhibits. It would be far better to place 
resources into existing institutions than “begging for more and more money”.

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0,,2-2001586272,00.html

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