"Pressure from museums to scrap academic reproduction fees" (The Art Newspaper, January 2007).
London: The Art Fund, the leading independent funder of UK museum acquisitions, is to follow the lead of London’s V&A over charges for reproduction of images.
Last month, we revealed that the V&A is to stop charging for the reproductions from its collection in scholarly or education publications.
The Art Fund now intends to require that when ever a museum or gallery accepts a grant towards an acquisition, it will allow the work to be reproduced without payment in scholarly (as opposed to commercial) books and magazines. It is also likely to request that similar arrangements should apply to the 850.000 acquisitions it has assisted since 1903, although this cannot be a requirement.
Since the Art Fund supports virtually all major UK galleries and museums, the new policy is likely to have major impact across the country---and could encourage other institutions to follow the V&A’s lead.”

Source: Marylin Lavin, liste caah@Princeton.EDU, 04/02/2007.