from The Art Newspaper -
Why a clean-up would be a clear-out
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On the eccentricities of the art market - or funny money, in another guise - as it is feared that the recent surge in the auction prices of contemporary art (in Asia and elsewhere) will inevitably become unsustainable. This sounds like a bubble in the making, and the complicity of the museum world is thus implicated:

"Museums play a complex and ambivalent role in the ecology of this [art] market. The curatorial community is outraged when it suspects that the imprimatur of a museum is being used to increase the market value of works in private ownership that it has borrowed, displayed and catalogued. [...] Many curators nevertheless spend considerable time advising collectors on acquisitions and many collectors’ decisions on their own acquisitions (and their donations of related works) are informed by what they learn about who’s hot and who’s not in their capacity as museum board members."