This is the reason that museums have rules

I sometimes see posts on this forum asking if these rules will be
enforced. We all should hope that they will be.

I wish rules would be enforced, but I don't see any consistency. At the Archeological Museum in Naples in April I had a backpack with me and was fully expecting to have to check it, but as I'm waiting in line for tickets I see people with bags larger than mine going through unchecked, so I figure I'll be able to carry it in. But I got stopped and asked to check it.

On the Pompeii website: no large backpacks, umbrellas, luggage or bags (cm 30x30x15) and other bulky items are not allowed and must be left at the cloakroom (the service is free of charge). But within the park you see all of that. It started to rain while we were there at the site was a sea of umbrellas. It's no wonder people ask if they can get away with it, because you probably can; no different than oversized carry-on on an airplane.

Well said, Linda. I couldn't agree more. But yes, Allan, consistency is important, too.

I wish these vandals would understand how utterly absurd it is for them to attack the best that human beings have to offer…that is, our creativity in all its forms. They are not helping their cause in any way. Personally, I hope the punishments start to fit the crimes.

They got in wearing t-shirts advertising their vandalism oriented organization?

One would think that by now museums etc., would be on watch for these types of goons.

It definitely changed the museums in Germany. You have to either put your coat and purse in a cloakroom or what I did is put it in a locker. Have 2 and 1 euros coins because they cost about 3 dollars. I will say it's a pain to do all this and these climate activists are just pissing people off.

Do marches and protests but when you damage artwork that's just too much.

As stated in one reply, the reason has often to do with bulk. Here you have people with packs on lurching and turning around, bumping into others and possibility dislodging a museum piece.
Personally I find it to be much better to not have anything, including a jacket with me inside the museum. Frequently it is warm enough to have to end up carrying it anyway. I don’t need my pack either in a museum. Not when I am often spending many hours in there.
Gotta have my stuff with me. Nah, you don’t.

mango.tree…..FYI

It HAS been done….

In days of yore ( the 70’s) Rembrandt’s The Night Watch was severely slashed and defaced by a knife wielding assailant….

I’d walked right up to admire the painting 2 weeks before. No velvet rope stoping me from doing so.

Because of that attack museums began to
re evaluate how to protect paintings from imbeciles.

Rules became the norm.

Most of the museums in Frankfurt have lockers that take a 1-2€ coin which you get back, so they are free. They are pretty strict about bags and coats. Either you wear your coat/jacket or you have to lock it up. You cannot carry it over your arm. No back packs and no large purses or bags. I usually have to lock up my messenger bag that I wear cross body.
Recommendation? Have a small bag you can wear cross body for your phone, money, tissues.

mango tree -

https://www.artnews.com/art-news/news/henri-de-toulouse-lautrec-alte-nationalgalerie-fake-blood-incident-1234644855/

The Lautrec painting had not been returned to gallery display as of May when I visited. Even minor damage can have significant impact. The gallery wall even draws attention to the missing painting and the museum has the strictest rules we encountered so far.

I'm hoping all of the art work is protected by glass or other shield. It just takes one nut to destroy a Monet or Van Gogh.

The "guards" should be able to physically restrain people, not just look on helplessly.

Wear a fanny pack for phone and so forth.

As a society we always want to punish the law abiding people because of nut jobs like these two. If the punishment of the guilty was severe enough, there would be less of it. Instead, our first reaction is place onerous rules on the majority, ban backpacks, no water bottles, stand in security lines for hours, etc. because maybe one more nut job will do something. Punish the innocent because we have no stomach to punish the guilty.

I wonder how the government of Singapore would handle these two.

In the US, it is interesting how the first museum-casualty of the Pandemic was water fountains. The next was coat checks. And it's all about labor costs. Suddenly the desire to protect the artworks had faded, before the opportunity to reduce headcount and recover coat space for ... ... gift shops.

I'd also refer to the trend (again, mainly in the US), to place more and more of special exhibitions in plexiglas boxes. Even paintings get this treatment. There are visibly fewer guards in galleries that contain nothing "touchable". (I've also noticed a shocking number of leashed and armload dogs ... And I have seen Comfort Animals at airports relieve themselves in public hallways.)

It would be easy to stash some tiny car paint bottle in your underwear and elsewhere. To me it's way too much of a risk to have an exposed Monte, etc., with no protection. If guards are not allowed to physically restrain you, then what?

I get it. If a guard touches somebody they'll be sued for "emotional trauma" or some physical injury. I wish the guards would hoist the protestors up by their collars and give them the bum's rush out the front door, or better yet a holding room until the police arrive. There should be a minimum sentence of 1 year incarcerated.

there isn't any Francis in this thread

And my direct reply to him was removed as well. My (retained) second post is impersonal.