"The fees charged by the UK’s national museums to reproduce images of historic paintings, prints and drawings are unjustified, and should be abolished. Such fees inhibit the dissemination of knowledge that is the very purpose of public museums and galleries. Fees charged for academic use pose a serious threat to art history: a single lecture can cost hundreds of pounds; a book, thousands.

Fees are also charged despite the fact that the artworks in question are not only publicly owned, but out of copyright (that is, made by artists who died more than 70 years ago). Museums claim they create a new copyright when making a faithful reproduction of a 2D artwork by photography or scanning, but it is doubtful that the law supports this. Museums' rules for using images are confusing and inconsistent, and do not raise meaningful funds once costs are taken into account. We urge the UK's public museums to follow the example of a growing number of international museums (such as Holland’s Rijksmuseum) and provide open access to images of publicly owned, out of copyright paintings, prints, and drawings so that they are free for the public to reproduce."

The following art historians and others signed the above letter which appeared in The Times newspaper, 6 November 2017.  Please join them by adding your name to this petition.

• Hugh Belsey MBE, Senior Research Fellow, Paul Mellon Centre
  Diana Dethloff FSA, University College London
  Dr Rhoda Eitel-Porter, Editor, Print Quarterly
  Professor Anthony Geraghty, University of York
  Sir Nicholas Goodison FBA, FSA
  Antony Griffiths FBA, Chairman, The Walpole Society
  Dr Bendor Grosvenor
  Michael Hall FSA, Editor, The Burlington Magazine
  James Holloway CBE, former Director, Scottish National Portrait Gallery
  Waldemar Januszczak, The Sunday Times
  Professor Martin Kemp FBA, FRSE, University of Oxford
  Alex Kidson, independent art historian
  Michael Liversidge FSA, FRSA, Emeritus Dean, Faculty of Arts, Bristol University
  Dr Matt Lodder, University of Essex
  Dr Thomas Marks, Editor, Apollo
  Dr Alexander Marr, FSA, FRHistS, University of Cambridge
  Dr Dorothy Price FSA, University of Bristol, Editor, Art History
  Dr Janina Ramirez, University of Oxford
  Dr Jacqueline Riding, author and independent art historian
  Dr Malcolm Rogers CBE FSA, Director Emeritus, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
  Pontus Rosén, CEO, Association for Art History
  Professor Simon Schama CBE FRSL, Columbia University
  Dr Katherine Schofield, King’s College London
  Dr Robin Simon FSA, Editor, The British Art Journal
  Professor David Solkin FBA, Courtauld Institute of Art
  Dr Richard Stephens FSA
  Dr Duncan Thomson, former Director, Scottish National Portrait Gallery
  Professor Michael White, Head of History of Art, University of York