Museums around the world are grappling with whether to ban or restrict selfie-taking as incidents of artwork damage and concerns about visitor behavior continue to mount. The debate intensified after Florence's renowned Uffizi Galleries announced plans in June to place strict limits on the practice, following an incident where a visitor damaged a portrait by Anton Domenico Gabbiani while attempting to photograph himself with the artwork.
The controversy gained additional attention earlier this year when The Telegraph published an article titled "Ban selfie-takers from museums—these people don't deserve to see great art." Columnist Celia Walden described her frustration after finding Emile Jean Horace Vernet's 1831 "Portrait of a Lady" blocked from view by a visitor taking photos. "Ban selfies and you encourage people to take in their cultural heritage—perhaps even develop a little respect for it," Walden concluded.
While the Uffizi could not provide updates on their specific plans, the museum's director previously described the move as necessary "to prevent behavior that is not compatible with the sense of our institutions and respect for cultural heritage." This incident has sparked heated debate about whether selfies represent a harmful distraction that endangers artwork or serve as valuable tools helping visitors connect with cultural spaces.
Ross Parry, a professor of museum technology at the University of Leicester, emphasizes that approaches vary significantly across institutions. "There are 1,700 accredited museums in the UK, and what we might always benefit from doing is noticing the sheer variety of those spaces and where they are on their journeys of digital maturity," he explains. For some institutions, selfie restrictions may be operational decisions based on staffing levels, available space, or the types of objects displayed.
New York's Frick Collection has maintained an almost complete photography ban for decades, recently reverting back after a brief trial period allowing photos. "We tried allowing photography, but had to revert back to our existing policy because visitors often came very close to backing into the art when taking pictures," a museum spokesperson told The Art Newspaper. The Frick Collection is particularly vulnerable since it's valued for its lack of protective barriers, vitrines, and stanchions around fine and decorative artworks.
Similar safety concerns emerged at Verona's Palazzo Maffei earlier this year when artist Nicola Bolla's sculpture "Van Gogh Chair" was damaged after a visitor attempted to photograph another person sitting on the artwork. While the institution doesn't plan to ban selfies entirely, acknowledging their role in making art accessible, it has implemented enhanced protection measures for many works.
The concerns extend beyond physical damage to questions of respect and appropriateness. At Poland's Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum, selfies are permitted, but staff monitor online content for photographs that disrespect victims' memory. "These are rather isolated incidents, but no matter how often they occur, we believe we must react," says Paweł Sawicki, a museum press officer. The museum occasionally contacts photographers or raises awareness through public discussion.
However, Sawicki notes that many selfies serve positive purposes. "More often, we promote good photographs taken at the Memorial, whose role is to commemorate the history and victims of Auschwitz, as can be seen, for example, on our Instagram account," he explains. Many photos are accompanied by emotional messages showing visitors understood the significance of their location and wanted to mark their visit meaningfully.
Proponents of museum selfies point to numerous benefits, including increased accessibility, broader appeal, and improved digital engagement. Since launching in 2014, Museum Selfie Day has generated over 100,000 Instagram posts using the hashtag #MuseumSelfie, aimed at raising awareness of collections through visitor and staff images. During the COVID-19 pandemic, institutions like the Getty Museum in Los Angeles asked homebound visitors to photograph themselves recreating favorite artworks, generating over 59,000 posts.
London's National Gallery has embraced digital engagement through its 200 Creators influencer network, whose content was viewed over 42 million times last year according to museum data. These campaigns demonstrate how museums are finding innovative ways to connect with audiences in the digital age.
Parry argues that while the medium may be modern, these engagement strategies aren't entirely new. "Thanks to the guided tour, the museum has always been a social space, long before the mobile phone and the audioguide made hand-held media commonplace," he observes. "The museum is there to be a place of co-creation and co-curation, and not just a place of monologue and single authorship."
The professor views successful campaigns as evidence of museums "continually finding ways of including and partnering with its communities and its audiences. They are joyful and they are playful, and they are there to energize and to excite." Still, Parry understands why some museums regulate selfies when operationally necessary.
Given the enormous diversity of institutions worldwide, each with distinct collections and communities, Parry believes there's no universal answer to the museum selfie question—nor is one needed. The ongoing debate reflects broader tensions between traditional museum practices and evolving visitor expectations in an increasingly digital world.
