A museum visit was an undisputed part of that. Even though museum collections were, to a great extent, bourgeois by nature, people like Boekman still regarded “elevation of the people” as the culmination of workers’ emancipation. The museum was, in this sense, even embraced by the labour movement. In the nineteenth century, this role was refined to the nth degree and remained unchallenged until well into the twentieth century. The museum was a sanctuary, where a community – often a nation – celebrated its own culture and history. Once upon a time, this added value was self-evident. With these conditions, what is left of the museum’s social added value? Madonna or Mozart, Barbie or Bach, everything seems to be of equal value. The good taste that we took for granted has vanished. The museum world is in the thrall of postmodernism, of cultural relativism. It’s a kind of supermarket, where there are lots of things to see and to do, but with no tour guide. Today’s museum can surprise and entertain, but when it comes to providing insight it lags way behind. As such, they adopt the appearance of professionally run amusement parks, where visitors can enjoy themselves for a few hours. According to Adriaan van der Staay, former director of the Rotterdamse Kunststichting (Rotterdam Art Foundation), museums have developed from public institutions into cultural enterprises, competing with one another for the attention and spending power of the public. This development has of course been noted before. Enthusiastic young colleagues would be telling you about product/market combinations and about Dutch celebrities who’ve been lured into opening an exhibition. You’d hear sound bites around the display cases, see film images flashing out of the corner of your eye, there’d be a party going on in the cafeteria and the museum shop would be brimming with colourful merchandise. Groups of children are running around and throwing themselves at computer screens. But you’d see a different world soon enough. What would you notice? Everything would look the same initially: the building would be the same, you’d see display cases and attendants, objects and visitors. Imagine: You’re working at a museum in the 1970s, you fall into a coma and then wake up forty years later. Isn’t this task being compromised? And how do national museums – and military museums in particular – find a healthy balance between state, market and civil society? Many museums are state-financed, non-profit institutions and, as such, they have a social task. This development, which military museums have also experienced, has led to impressive visitor numbers, but it also raises questions. Over the past few years, museums have adopted an increasingly market-driven approach. “The economy of meaning and the economy of money must be carefully managed in order to maintain the vitality of both.”