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Silly and wasteful. This won’t bring anyone into a museum. Museums are dead and have been losing attendance for years. Think for a moment. We just watched it on YouTube.

I can search for nearly any museum piece and see it on the Internet for a fraction of a US penny. Why waste the time driving, pay for parking (ticketing?), and an expensive museum whose staff despise you and all you stand for?

Museums need to die and quickly or at least get off the public dole. Eliminate the corporate income tax and all museum subsidies by government and let the rich run them.

Sure you can see (most) any museum piece on the internet - but how would you know they were there in the first place? You go to an art gallery to see something, and something else catches your eye, something that you would, in normal circumstance, never come into contact with.

You might as well say you need never visit anywhere ever again because you can see it all on TV.

Your take is interesting on several levels. Most art in the major (and even lesser) museums was donated or is on loan from the very wealthy. They are there for the benefit of the hoi polloi who can choose to enjoy it or not.

Nearly every day during the school year, school buses are lined up outside the museums of the Smithsonian Institution so young children can be introduced to art, to history, to science. Charter buses from around the country abound in summer as well as throughout the year. The Smithsonian is called our “nation’s attic” for good reason. Our country’s history, its customs, and culture are treasures, all on display for the people to enjoy. Or not.

There is nothing quite like seeing an original piece of timeless art in person. It’s the difference between seeing a classic movie on an iPad vs. seeing it on a big screen. Or reading Cliff’s Notes vs. reading a great novel. Magnified and on steroids.

Let’s take the famous painting of Washington crossing the Delaware as an example. I must have seen its reproductions hundreds of times in my life. Last year I saw the original at NYC’s Metropolitan Museum and was absolutely blown away. It is not, no matter what you claim, comparable to calling it up on the internet or seeing a magazine cover or any other alternative to the real thing.

I don’t know why you think people working in museums despise those who go there. Most people the public see ‘working’ in museums are volunteers who love the art (or history or science or whatever other subject the museum covers). I’ve only ever met very enthusiastic tour guides and docents who enjoy telling the stories behind the exhibits.