Lost Museums

Abstract

ABSTRACT Museums are forever. At least that is what we’ve come to believe. In this introductory essay, we ask how that idea became part of the modern museum’s founding ideology, as well as the challenges it has faced both in practice and in theory. An overview of museum history finds that collections are often more mobile than is expected today, uncovering a range of arguments for more flexibility in their use and dispersal. The articles in the volume not only consider the many ways that museums and their collections can become lost, but also how they might be saved.