Young Prospective Artist Finds Herself in a 'No Sketch' Zone

A second grader was scolded by a security guard for sketching some of her favorite paintings at a traveling show entitled "School of Paris: Masterpieces from the Baltimore Museum of Art" which included works by Matisse, Picasso, Monet, and Degas. The guard claimed that the artwork was copyright protected.

The museum has since issued an apology and is inviting artists to sketch to their artistic hearts' content as long as they don't get in another viewer's way. Sketching other artists' works is an extremely common practice among all ages of art students and is encouraged and sometimes required in undergraduate and master level classes.

Seems Mr Big Time museum security guard has recently read the infamous failure to copyright is akin to communism interview and thought he was doing his bit to prevent artistic terrorism. (Please note my restraint in making a bad performance art joke at this juncture)