LOCKED AWAY

posted by James Reel

A wine blogger I follow is saddened by the notion that a remarkable French collector of 18th-, 19th- and 20th-century wines wants to place his 20,000 bottles in a museum. That means 20,000 corks that will never be popped (not that all that wine is drinkable anymore, anyway); thousands of fantastic wines, now difficult to obtain, will never be tasted.

I can sympathize with blogger Alder’s position. Imagine a vast library of books and recordings that can never be touched. Actually, such libraries have effectively existed for a very long time, because their access privileges are so restrictive. At the British Library, for example, even certified scholars have had to go through all sorts of credential contortions to get their grubby hands on certain items. But at least a select few have gotten to the books; what if nobody could? What would be the point of such a library, or museum? Why not just rely on a catalog of titles, and not waste space with the objects themselves? Forgetting about wine for the moment, does a medium of communication—a book or recording or painting—have any value at all if its line of communication is cut off? Well, yes, it may have value as a rare physical specimen, but it ceases to exist as a conveyor of information. In that sense, a museum or library may not really fulfill its mission of preservation.