"I saw the real thing:" Do art museum visitors care about original versus replicas?

Authors:

• Olivia Ross, Master of Arts in Museology
• Chair: Lane Eagles
• Dr. Katie Bunn-Marcuse
• Dr. Benjamin Schmidt



Abstract:

Replicas in museums have been vastly studied for years, with research centered on discussions with curators and academics reflecting on the use of replicas in art museums. However, there is a lack of research about the discussion of replicas in museums that involves museum visitors. My research aims to bring museum visitors’ opinions toward replicas to the forefront of this conversation by asking them directly. An eight-question survey was used to ask museum visitors if they had a positive, negative, or indifferent opinion to 15th-17th century European painting replicas. The survey used original paintings from the Cleveland Museum of Art, Seattle Art Museum, and the Cummer Museum of Art and Gardens. Sixty surveys were completed in total with most surveys collected online with written instructions and a small number collected in person with the same instructions given orally. This research found that while most of the participants had an indifferent opinion toward replicas in art museums, most indifferent responses had a negative opinion toward replicas in their free response. This trend led to the conclusion that more art museum visitors had a negative opinion toward replicas in museums. This research also found that original paintings are preferred over replicas, no matter the date of creation and replicas created closer to the original painting were held in a higher opinion than replicas made more recently. Implications from this research can be used to help museums understand firsthand what museum visitors want to see in art museums regarding replicas.