Ask Us: Scholarly Communications

The person who takes the photograph is the copyright holder of the photo, but the museum is the copyright holder of the original object. If you choose to include a photo of a museum object or display in a publication, and the representation is true to the original and is not transformative you will need to get permission from the museum to publish.  One option is to crop the picture and use only that part needed to make your point, but still include the name of the museum and it's location, the name of artist, note the media, and the date the image was taken.