The fact that politicians, commentators and press pundits all waded in to defend free admission is a sign of the success of the principle. As the story unfolded the Tories rapidly backtracked and it became increasingly difficult to find anyone to defend the idea of charging.
The response from the Conservative Party central office didn't clarify matters much. 'The policy is as it has always been: we don't have a policy on this,' a spokeswoman told me (adding helpfully, 'It's as clear as mud isn't it?').
But while it would be easy to dismiss the incident as little more than a media-fabricated storm in a teacup, it's useful to survey the impact of free admission and to imagine life without it.
The figures speak for themselves. In the five years since admission charges were scrapped in England in December 2001 there have been nearly 30 million extra visits to national museums and galleries that previously charged - an increase of 83 per cent.
Of course, not everyone was in favour of scrapping the charges and there have been murmurings that some of the directors of the nationals would prefer a return to the old regime where at least they were able to have some control over their income.
There have also been criticisms that it's just the same old people visiting more often (although national museums have met their targets for new users, according to the department for culture's annual report this year). And for independent museums which have to charge it created a very unlevel playing field.
Nonetheless Hugo Swire, the shadow culture secretary whose comments caused the fuss, should have done his homework. In Sweden at the beginning of this year the government removed the legal requirement for museums to be free while at the same time slashing their budgets.
The inevitable decline in visitor figures followed; on average, visitors haemorrhaged at a rate of 35 per cent compared with pre-charging days. Swire's suggestion that in the UK free access could continue for children and students is cold comfort - in Sweden museums remained free for those under 19 but that didn't stop the overall decline in numbers.
John Tusa, the head of the Tories' taskforce on the arts, has said that the taskforce supports free admission and that there won't be any proposals to the contrary in its final report - which is reassuring considering that Tusa was appointed chairman of the Victoria and Albert Museum last month.
In the end Swire has probably done museums a favour by reminding everyone how great free entry has been and rallying the troops to its defence.
Sharon Heal, editor
sharon@museumsassociation.org
The response from the Conservative Party central office didn't clarify matters much. 'The policy is as it has always been: we don't have a policy on this,' a spokeswoman told me (adding helpfully, 'It's as clear as mud isn't it?').
But while it would be easy to dismiss the incident as little more than a media-fabricated storm in a teacup, it's useful to survey the impact of free admission and to imagine life without it.
The figures speak for themselves. In the five years since admission charges were scrapped in England in December 2001 there have been nearly 30 million extra visits to national museums and galleries that previously charged - an increase of 83 per cent.
Of course, not everyone was in favour of scrapping the charges and there have been murmurings that some of the directors of the nationals would prefer a return to the old regime where at least they were able to have some control over their income.
There have also been criticisms that it's just the same old people visiting more often (although national museums have met their targets for new users, according to the department for culture's annual report this year). And for independent museums which have to charge it created a very unlevel playing field.
Nonetheless Hugo Swire, the shadow culture secretary whose comments caused the fuss, should have done his homework. In Sweden at the beginning of this year the government removed the legal requirement for museums to be free while at the same time slashing their budgets.
The inevitable decline in visitor figures followed; on average, visitors haemorrhaged at a rate of 35 per cent compared with pre-charging days. Swire's suggestion that in the UK free access could continue for children and students is cold comfort - in Sweden museums remained free for those under 19 but that didn't stop the overall decline in numbers.
John Tusa, the head of the Tories' taskforce on the arts, has said that the taskforce supports free admission and that there won't be any proposals to the contrary in its final report - which is reassuring considering that Tusa was appointed chairman of the Victoria and Albert Museum last month.
In the end Swire has probably done museums a favour by reminding everyone how great free entry has been and rallying the troops to its defence.
Sharon Heal, editor
sharon@museumsassociation.org
