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Major Museums Start Banning Selfie Sticks

Posted by samzenpus on from the put-down-the-stick dept.

An anonymous reader shares these articles about museums banning the dreaded selfie stick. "Selfie sticks, the logical 'extension' of an already irksome activity, were recently banned in Premier League soccer stadiums. Now museums around the world are starting to do the same over worries of accidental damage to artwork. The Smithsonian barred their use effective last week as a 'preventative measure to protect visitors and museum objects,' especially on crowded days. Meanwhile, a formal ban is pending at Versailles palace and Centre Pompidou in France, and visitors are now being told to stow their sticks by guards at the Louvre. Both Pompidou and the Louvre will continue to allow regular photography and selfies."

4 of 183 comments (clear)

  1. Good Luck by coop247 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    We visited the Sistene Chapel and the tour stops right outside the room and the guide is very clear "Be quiet and absolutely no flash photography" and then you walk in and its absolutely packed with people being loud and taking flash pictures.

    --
    //TODO: Insert catchy phrase
  2. Re:"Dreaded"? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    People who have to deal with a lot of them in moderately crowded spaces with multiple millions of dollars' worth of precious, irreplaceable, objects on display (objects that they are employed to protect), that's who.

  3. Re:Sure about the Louvre? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Yep, it's just flash. If you use flash, guards will tell you to not-do-that-again. Otherwise everyone walks around photographing.

  4. Re:Selfies are just a logical extension.... by Wycliffe · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Your selfie stick is a lot less likely to run away with your phone than that oh-so-honest person you asked to take a picture of you in Italy.

    The odds of another tourist stealing your camera when you ask them to take a picture is pretty much 0%.
    The odds of a someone (especially a poor local) who asks YOU if you would them to take a picture of you
    stealing your camerais pretty much 100%. This is the same advice I give my kids. If you get lost, don't
    wait for someone to approach you, instead walk up to the first person you see and ask for help. Most people
    are normal law abiding citizens, if you play the odds and pick someone randomly then your chances of getting
    a criminal are very small. If instead you let them approach you then they are picking you which makes the
    odds of them being a criminal considerably higher.