Here's the Latest Museum to Ban the Selfie Stick

Visitors to London’s National Gallery can leave their selfie sticks at home, after the preeminent museum became the latest to ban the photo-taking devices for fear of damaging the artwork.

“Due to the recent popularity of selfie sticks, the National Gallery preferred to take precautionary measures,” a museum spokeswoman told AFP.

Selfie sticks are the wildly popular extending rods that can be fitted with a smartphone for a different angle self-portrait. They’ve been banned at a number of museums, including the Museum of Modern Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, Washington D.C.’s National Gallery. The Centre Pompidou and the Louvre are considering bans.

London’s National Gallery is classifying selfie sticks as tripods, which are not permitted under the National Gallery’s rules.

MORE: How the Selfie Stick Is Killing the Selfie

[AFP]

See The 10 Best Space Selfies Ever Taken

Gemini 12 astronaut Buzz Aldrin takes a selfie during a spacewalk in Nov. 1966.

NASA

Astronaut Stephen K. Robinson takes a selfie during a spacewalk on Aug. 3, 2005.

Stephen K. Robinson—NASA

NASA's Curiosity Mars rover used the camera at the end of its arm in April and May 2014 to take dozens of component images combined into this selfie.

JPL-Caltech/MSSS/NASA

JAXA astronaut Aki Hoshide takes a selfie in Sept. 2012.

Aki Hoshide—NASA

ESA Astronaut Alexander Gerst takes a selfie during a spacewalk on Oct. 7, 2014.

Alexander Gerst—ESA

The Opportunity Rover on Mars takes a selfie shortly after dust cleared its solar panels in March 2014.

JPL-Caltech/Cornell/Arizona State University/NASA

The 3.2 gigapixel Global Selfie mosaic was made with 36,422 individual selfies that were posted to social media sites on or around Earth Day, April 22, 2014.

NASA

This selfie composed of two different images shows the Rosetta spacecraft as it soars past a comet on Oct. 7, 2014.

Rosetta/Philae/CIVA/ESA

Expedition 35 astronaut Tom Marshburn takes a selfie during a spacewalk on May 11, 2013.

Tom Marshburn—NASA

Gemini 10 astronaut Mike Collins takes a selfie in July 1966.

Mike Collins—Arizona State University/JSC//NASA

1 of 10

Advertisement

Contact us at editors@time.com.