The policy of free admission to national museums, long held up as a (0) CORNERSTONE of cultural democracy, has come under renewed scrutiny in recent years. Proponents argue, with some , that removing the price barrier widens access and ensures that public collections remain exactly that — public. Critics, , point to the strain that rising visitor numbers place on underfunded institutions, many of which struggle to ends meet even with generous state subsidy. The debate is rarely on purely economic grounds, touching as it does on deeper questions about what a museum is for. Should it chiefly serve the casual tourist, or should priority be given to scholars and schoolchildren? Can an institution to all audiences simultaneously without diluting its core mission? In of hard answers, many museums have on a middle course: free permanent galleries offset by paid temporary exhibitions. The compromise is pragmatic, though it its own awkward questions about which parts of heritage get priced and which do not.