Revekka Kefalea (National and Kapodistrian University of Athens)
In light of both the ongoing mass digitisation projects of cultural heritage and the open access movement, this presentation aims to outline a history of access to national museums by comparatively examining the establishment and development of five national museums in Europe: (a) the British Museum (London, Great Britain), (b) the Louvre (Paris, France), (c) the Rijksmuseum (Amsterdam, the Netherlands), (d) the Germanisches Nationalmuseum (Nuremberg, Germany), and (e) the National Archaeological Museum of Athens (Greece). This comparative outline aims to reveal that this history is marked by a series of challenges and transformations in which the role of the state was and continues to be pivotal. It also aims to highlight how state policies and interventions – such as budget constraints and funding cuts – have influenced national museums’ ongoing efforts to fulfil their foundational mission of providing equal, universal access to knowledge, memory, and culture.