Abstract
The academy and the museum were once in an organic interdependent relation as legitimate institutions of artistic production and consecration of their work, generating an academic art against which Impressionism led a symbolic revolution. Modern art has been able to succeed because state protection has been withdrawn from the academy, because of the opening of the Salon des réfusés and the progressive establishment of the modern art market. Today modern art has found its place in the history of art and entered the museum, which is flourishing more than ever, but in the process has undergone a redefinition of its traditional functions. The threats which menace the museum are mainly its loss of independence in its aesthetic judgement with regard to the art market - which has in a way replaced the academy as the museum partner in the modern art world - and the competition with richly endowed private collections displayed in a museum framework for the day-to-day writing of the history of art. This new situation implies the risk of the museum changing into a cultural amusement park, and for contemporary art to become museum art guaranteed by the art market.
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