Could the NPG’s reaction also be to do with the fact that they see the digital images as an extension of their real works of art – I don’t just mean that they own them, but that they curate them, manage them, interpret them, ‘protect’ them , etc.

I think that there is evidence of intellectual snobbery in the way that they have reacted with such horror that their images are now on Wikipedia, can be found there first, and that no one has to read their own trusted, reliable and scholarly (as they would see it!) information! By freeing the images the images also become free to interpretation – you and I may think this is a good thing, but there are definitely some people in museums who think not!

I personally see a strong connection between NPG’s suing of Wikipedia and Nicholas Penney’s comments about the uncivilised behaviour outside the National Gallery door – society is changing, but it seems some museums want us to remain firmly in the past with a public of quiet consumers who gratefully take what they’re given.