The One Thing You Should Never Buy From a Museum Gift Shop

But even if you don’t mind paying £25 for four totally non-art-related Christmas ornaments you could order from Amazon for £8, there is still one thing you should never, ever allow yourself to buy as you’re exiting through the gift shop.

You’ve no doubt already fallen into the trap at some point. We all have. You see a painting you love at an exhibition and you scour the gift shop searching for the poster. Well, let’s be real, you probably don’t scour because it’s probably hanging up in an obvious place where everyone can see it, begging to be bought.

But if you do one thing ever friends, resist the urge! Do not buy the poster!

It’s 2018 and owning a poster version of an artwork will literally do nothing for you but take up space in your life. If we’re talking about a limited-edition exhibition poster then maybe go for it, but a replica of an artwork you could just as easily print from your laptop on the nice paper they have at work? Don’t go there.

A poster like that, unlike that exhibition poster for example, has zero chance of going up in value and belongs on the walls of university dorm rooms if not still wrapped up in the tube it came in.

There is so much amazing original art out in the world that is affordable and it’s not too hard to find. Buy that instead! Give yourself a chance to purchase an artwork that has at least a chance of making you money in the future, something that not everyone else has, and something that’s not inflated in price because you bought it from the museum.

You’re welcome and happy non-poster shopping.