Abstract
This chapter explores the short-lived phenomenon of the live broadcast of museum exhibitions into cinemas between 2011 and 2014, including Leonardo Live (2011) from London's National Gallery, Pompeii Live (2013) and Vikings Live (2014) from the British Museum, and Matisse Live (2014) from the Tate Modern. These incongruous broadcasts, part arts documentary, part promotional material for their respective museums and exhibitions, appeared at the peak of the rapid growth of event cinema that took place at this time. However, unlike theater and other live performance, museum exhibitions and cinema exhibition are two distinct very distinct " media, " visually, temporally, and spatially. This chapter argues that this intermedial incompatibility is evidenced in the broadcasts' use of cinematography and liveness and they are also a response to questions surrounding curatorial intent in museum exhibitions.