Museums as Machines of Vision: Rethinking the Role of the Public

In a critical essay published on Artribune, philosopher and curator Marco Senaldi questions the traditional role of museums and the public's experience within them. He cites Marcel Duchamp, who rarely visited museums, arguing they collect mediocre works because "the beautiful things have already left." Senaldi references Harry Bellet's book "Falsari illustri" (Skira, 2019), which claims about half of museum collections are forgeries. He mentions Thomas Hoving, former director of the Metropolitan Museum of New York, who stated that the entire collection of the Mimara Museum in Zagreb is fake, and the recent discovery at the Terrus Museum in Elne, France, where over half of Étienne Terrus's works are false. Senaldi describes the museum as a "vision machine" where visitors queue without seeing, then are pressured to look, only to become blind again upon exiting. He contrasts a dubious Dürer at the Alte Pinakothek in Munich with Caravaggio's authentic "Seven Works of Mercy" at the Pio Monte della Misericordia in Naples. Senaldi highlights a juxtaposition at the Prado Museum: Titian's "Original Sin" (1560-1570) and Rubens's copy (1628-1629), now displayed together. He argues that this pairing shifts focus from what to see to the viewer's role as observer, proposing that museums should make us "re-see" rather than just see. The essay appears in Artribune Magazine #50.