Mr. Haberstich, I salute you. Well said, indeed: "To me, that's the museum paradox--that the very act of display, having removed an object from its original physical context, entails so much risk." I am in the middle of a year-long graduate level study of the very foundations of Museology and the debate about this flag sums it up well. There are many questions we should all be rethinking. Who decides what we collect? In the past, collectors/museums had the benefit of time: wait a generation to see what becomes important in the public conscience and only collect those items. Now, with the idea of collection of contemporary objects, the choices are not so clear. By our very act of collection, we are deciding for ours and future generations what WILL be important. Can we really be so presumptuous as to believe we can predict the future? Can we afford to be wrong and loose forever something so "valuable"? IF we collect it, should we display it? When? How? Should we collect something that we think can never be displayed? There are another 2 semesters worth of questions I could ask, but I'll leave that up to my Prof. I am just very refreshed to see that someone else saw the dept of the question and its profoundness to the museum profession. Have a nice day! Lori Allen, Grad Student, UMSL ========================================================= Important Subscriber Information: The Museum-L FAQ file is located at http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . You may obtain detailed information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "help" (without the quotes). If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "Signoff Museum-L" (without the quotes).