Abstract
In the light of the transition from state-directed to market-oriented economies, the arts are faced with new challenges. Whereas market logic is usually considered to favour standardization, the conventional art logic emphasizes differentiation. Without taking a position in this debate, the article considers the fairly uncritical adoption by nation states that had previously entrusted arts patronage to public agencies of what they consider to be the American model of predominantly private sector support: private patronage. A consideration of the development of patronage of serious art and music in the United States, however, suggests that private patronage is too simple an interpretation of that support, and that commercial considerations have an important part to play in understanding how museums and symphony orchestras were institutionalized.
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