from The Art Newspaper -
Museums should beware of being used as marketing tools
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Show and sell: Sotheby’s announces auction of Chinese art just two days after museum display
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With the art market hotting up, the art gallery ecosystem becomes increasingly commonplace - and in order to secure a higher premium, (publicly-funded) art museums are cleverly utilised as showcase venues, albeit tacitly or unwittingly (on the part of the museum).

As the first article admonish: "museums need, axiomatically, to be able to make decisions about acquisitions, whether bought or donated, and about the choice of works to borrow and display, free from pressure from third parties who may stand to gain from any increase in their value or the value of related works."

And this needs to be so ont he principle that public monies should not be used for private gains. Further along: "museums, in protecting the public interest and their long term reputations, have a responsibility to seek and secure firmer assurances about intentions than they currently do—and not to be (or appear to be) suckered by lenders."

Walking straight into a minefield of conflict-of-interests and appearing stupid, to top it off - how far down the road of professional incompetency can museums afford to go?
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