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I don't think this is a fair comparison as a museum is normally opened with the sole desire of preserving history ( Profit is often desired but not the incentiv
by nullandvoid 7y ago
I don't think this is a fair comparison as a museum is normally opened with the sole desire of preserving history ( Profit is often desired but not the incentive for opening )
Do you think google bought YouTube originally to preserve history or to create a new line of profit and enhance its brand?
- chillacy 7y agoMuseums don’t own all of their collections though, and they too make decisions on what to display at any moment. Not all objects are worthy of display, some get rotated out back into some rich person’s attic.
- orcdork 7y agoI'd be very interested to hear about any respectable museum that sends off items that are not displayed to be stored into some rich person's attic (or for display at a private residence as I assume you are implying).
- thfuran 7y agoWhat else would a museum do with a piece on loan to them that they don't want anymore besides return it to the owner? That could be another museum or a private collection.
- orcdork 7y agoThat's neither what you said nor how museum loans work though. Loaned items are specifically loaned to be displayed for a length of time, it's not like borrowing a grass trimmer off of facebook.
- capitol_ 7y agoThe modern art museum here in stockholm often borrow items for their exhibitions, from other museums, artists or private collectors.
- kortilla 7y agoBorrowing items to display is not the same as giving away your own when you’re bored with them.
- bluGill 7y agoIf you have a valuable artifact that you don't have on display, renting it for a large sum to someone is a reasonable thing to do. Of course it goes without saying that you ensure whoever gets it takes care of it. Better it be on display at a rich person's house where I might get an invite to see it than in the basement where nobody can see it. As has been noted museums tend to be on the brink of financial insolvency. Getting a rich person to rent some art is a valid way to get enough money to stay solvent and continue to provide art to others. There is a lot more great art worth preserving than there are museums in the world. Note, the above is not a comment on IF it is done. I have no idea if it is possible for someone to actually do this.
- orcdork 7y agoNothing like "loaning" out cultural heritage on the basis of who's the most solvent, museums or rich people.
- pdpi 7y agoIt’s kind of the opposite — lots of museum pieces are privately owned and loaned to museums.
- nitwit005 7y agoThe big museums all have a warehouse somewhere: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smithsonian_Museum_Support_Center https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smithsonian_Museum_Support_Cen... If you constantly collect items, and never discard them, then your collection will just keep growing (as will your warehousing bills). There's far more than can be put on display at many locations.
- chippy 7y agoAlmost the entire collection of a museum is in storage or in archives if we consider number of objects as a whole. Only a very small proportion is on display and some of those on display will be from other museums.
- tzakrajs 7y agoConsidering their mission statement about making the worlds information universally accessible and contemporary goals around literary archival it’s not a stretch to believe they had history on their mind.
- airstrike 7y agoFurthermore, museums curate what they hold whereas YouTube probably has far more i can haz cheezburger videos than humanity will ever need