Past imperfectionists
MEANING AND MEMORY are at the heart of what museums do. But, as modern curators would rush to point out, both are superstructure. Museums rely on their objects. As our special section in this issue shows, the attitude towards the artefacts in their care is considerably more fraught among museum staff than it is among the visitors lured through their front doors.
Perhaps nowhere is the regrettable culture war being waged solely by one side more obvious than in the fanatical posturing of a militant minority of
