Principle May Trump Need In Transatlantic Art Deal

A scandal may be brewing over a well-intentioned exchange program between the Louvre and two leading American museums, Chicago’s Terra and Atlanta’s High. Under the proposed plan, all three museums would loan some art across the pond, and American corporate sponsors would pay part of the cost of refurbishing some of the government-owned Louvre’s galleries. And therein lies the problem: “Many in France’s cultural establishment have what might be called an ideological distaste for linking public art and private money. And while in practice French museums routinely seek corporate sponsorship for exhibitions, anything approaching the American model of privately-financed culture sets off alarm bells.”