PARIS — A French palace and a British museum have joined a growing list of global tourist attractions to ban “selfie sticks.”
The devices are used to improve snapshots, but critics say they are obnoxious and potentially dangerous. Officials at Palace of Versailles, outside Paris, and Britain’s National Gallery, in London, announced the bans Wednesday, saying they need to protect artworks and other visitors.
Rome’s Colosseum banned selfie sticks last month as a security measure, both for the objects on exhibit and for the 16,000 daily visitors to the 2,000-year-old monument.
“The twirling around of hundreds of sticks can become unwittingly dangerous,” said Colosseum spokesman Christiano Brughitta.
Two Americans were arrested last week after carving their names into the Colosseum’s wall — and then taking a photo with a selfie stick.
The Smithsonian museums in Washington banned selfie sticks last week. Other U.S. museums that ban selfie sticks include the Art Institute of Chicago, Detroit Institute of Arts, and New York’s Museum of Modern Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
