The Artful Jurist

Okay, so you're walking through a museum, admiring the paintings on exhibit, and you think to yourself, "I've just gotta have that one!"

Well, you know you can't really have the one that's hanging on the wall.  It's a museum, not an art gallery.  And, even if they were selling it, what're the chances you'd be willing to part with the kind of cash that museum-quality art sells for?

So you get a brilliant idea:  "I'll just snap a photo of the painting, have it blown up to actual size, and hang that on my wall."

Uh, did I say "brilliant?"  Perhaps I should have said "illegal."  At least, what I just described could be illegal if the painting isn't in the public domain.  Sure, the Mona Lisa's been around long enough to be outside copyright protection.  But more recent works (i.e., those created after 1922) might still be covered by the copyright laws, and that means that, even snapping a photo for reproductive display could constitute an illegal appropriation of the work.

Keep in mind that the artist who created the painting is the one and only person in the world who can authorize the making of copies of it (that includes, reproductions as posters, photos, computer screen desktops, T-shirts, coffee mugs, etc.) until the day arrives when that painting falls into the public domain.