“Narrative Museums” and Curators’ Rights: The Protection of a Museum Exhibition and Its Scenario under Polish Law

Since at least the 1990s, museums have expanded to cover a variety of societal functions, often enabling inclusive and participatory spaces for critical dialogue about the past and the future, and bridging together various narratives and cultural experiences, contributing to social cohesion and reconciliation. The new functions of museums, involving novel technological forms of display and communication, pose several legal questions concerning the management of such institutions, their resources, and exhibitions, including issues of copyright and other intellectual property rights. While referring to a recent case concerning an alleged infringement of the moral rights of the authors of the permanent exhibition of the Museum of the Second World War in Gdansk (MWII), this article examines the scope of copyright protection in new, so-called, “narrative” museums under Polish law. First it briefly scrutinizes main facts and circumstances of this case. Secondly, it discusses the current legal framework on the copyright protection of museum exhibitions under Polish law. Next, in light of the judgment rendered in the MWII case, the standard of legal protection of moral interests resulting from a museum exhibition’s design and its scenario (script) is explored. Finally, the article concludes with a set of observations concerning the extent to which copyright law may serve as a tool for protecting the integrity of museum exhibitions and their original conceptual design.