Restrictions on publishing images of old paintings?

Some 20 to 25 years ago I while visiting many of the great art museums of Europe and North America, I made slides of a large number of the paintings on their walls. Frankly, I do not recall whether in any particular case it permitted or prohibited at that time. And thinking back I imagine that the policy probably varied from museum to museum. In no instance (save one) was I asked to put the camera away and stop taking pictures, which I was doing rather conspicuously.

Assume that these paintings are all old enough so that they no longer are subject to any copyright (BTW is that a safe assumption, or do the museums have some other law with which to protect the images of their paintings?), can I presently, publish a cdrom derived from my slides of those paintings?

Sincerely
Henry Manaster
<manaster[_at_]yu1.yu.edu> Received on Thu Jan 20 1994 - 23:02:33 GMT