Art: Museum Guides on Tape?

In Paris last week, art lovers trooped to the Galerie Royale to see something billed as “The Art Gallery of the Future.” The future turned out to be electrified. As visitors grouped before each of the exhibits, an attendant pressed a button. Thereupon, a spotlight flared on and a tape-recorded voice boomed out a learned commentary.

The recorded spiels were the idea of Marcel LeGrand, director-general of the Societé Bénédictine of Fécamp, manufacturers of Benedictine liqueur. He installed a similar system in his distillery last year for the benefit of tourists, later tried it in the company’s Fécamp museum. Some of the Galerie Royale’s guides were pretty sad about the future—if this was it. Said one oldtimer: “At first, it was awful listening to an invisible man do my job. But you can’t stand in the way of progress.”