Museum Inc.

Good review of 'Museum Inc.' over at the Philly. The book's an expose of the monsters who run our museums.

This insider, Paul Werner, has a rapier wit and knows just how to use it.

A sample:

"The role of the American art museum is to launder the money of its trustees and sponsors, not, as you may think, by turning one asset ('cocaine,' for instance) into another asset (say, 'Rembrandts'), but by turning artworks into objects of authority and trust - objects that mediate and are mediated by the worth of money. The American art museum turns art into buzz the way its owners turn pork bellies into pork-belly futures."

I'd love to teach 'Salesmanship' (not 'salespersonship') to third and fourth year art students. Remember, kids, always be selling.