Arts & Economics: Analysis & Cultural Policy PDF
Preview Arts & Economics: Analysis & Cultural Policy
ARTS & ECONOMICS Analysis & Cultural Policy Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg GmbH Bruno S. Frey Arts& Economics Analysis & Cultural Policy Second Edition wi th 2 Figures and 9 Tables Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg GmbH ISBN 978-3-540-00273-4 ISBN 978-3-540-24695-4 (eBook) DOI 10.1 007/978-3-540-24695-4 Preface To put the ARTS & ECONOMICS next to each other, as in the title to this book, may be shocking to some readers. Must not creative art be free of economic constraints, must it not lead a life of its own? And is economics not the realm of mean commercial dealings? This book argues that it is not so: the ARTS & ECONOMICS go well together, indeed need each other. Without a sound economic base, art cannot exist, and without creativity the economy cannot flourish. There is a second way in which the Arts and Economics go together, namely in the sense of applying economic thinking to the arts. Over the last decades, this scholarly endeavor has been established under the name of "The Economics of Art" or "Cultural Economics". But this may also sound revolting to some readers as it suggests an imperialistic extension of a lowly benefit-cost calculus to the world of art. This fear is unwarranted. On the contrary, cultural economists stress the social value of art and defend it against a crude business view of art. Rather than dismissing art without direct commercial profit, art economists seek ways and means of supporting it. This book is not a textbook summarizing the achievements attained by the economics of art. Such books already exist, among them the author's own, Muses and Markets, Explorations in the Economics of Art, written jointly with Werner Pommerehne. VI Preface ARTS & ECONOMICS charters little known territories. I focus on so far disregarded aspects of the relationship between the arts and the economy. Novel aspects are introduced into economic analysis in order to better understand the world of art. At the same time, I seek to maintain the strength of the economic approach. The book is written so that it can be understood by social scientists in general and all persons interested in the arts. At the same time, it is hoped that my economist colleagues find challenging and unorthodox views and results worth noting. The content of the book is based on ideas, which were presented at many different conferences, and have subsequently been published in various scholarly journals and book collections. Chapter 5 is based on an article jointly written with Isabelle Vautravers Busenhart, chapters 6 and 7 on joint work with Werner Pommerehne, and chapter 9 with Reiner Eichenberger. The papers have been rewritten, and brought up to date, to form a coherent whole. Several chapters contain new material not previously published. Part I presents a personal survey of art economics and introduces the particular characteristics of the economic approach to culture. Part II deals with various aspects of museums, such as the management of the collections and superstar museums, as well as special exhibitions and festivals which have become prominent over the last decades. Part III, which follows, discusses how the arts can be supported by the public, whether the arts may be left to direct democratic decisions, and how artistic creativity is affected by government support. The final part IV inquires whether art is a financially lucrative investment, how the value of cultural property can be evaluated, and what can and should be done about fakes. The ideas and the research results presented here have been influenced by intensive discussions with the members of the invisible - and sometimes visible - college of economists and social scientists interested in the arts. I wish to record my debt of gratitude to those I feel not only scientifically close to, but also with whom I have regularly met over the last years. In addition to the forerunners, in particular William Baumol, Sir Alan Peacock, Dick Netzer and Mark Blaug, I want to explicitly mention Franc;oise Benhamou, Trine Bille, Giorgio Brosio, Reiner Eichenberger, Rene Frey, Victor Preface Vll Ginsburgh, John O'Hagan, Michael Hutter, Arjo Klamer, Gianfranco Mossetto, Dominique Sagot-Duvauroux, Walter Santagata, Mark Schuster, Bruce Seaman, David Throsby, Ruth Towse and Michele Trimarchi, and last but not least, the late Werner Pommerehne, former co-worker and dear friend whom I sorely miss. The first edition of Arts &Economics sold so well that this second, paperback, edition appears only two years later. Nevertheless, it has been substantially extended and revised: "Private Faces in Public Places: A Case Study of the New Beyeler Museum" (Chapter 6) has been added. It is a case study of one of the most successful recently founded art museums. This chapter was jointly written with Stephan Meier. "Creativity, Government and the Arts" (Chapter 9) has been completely rewritten and now contains new material. The statistics have, wherever possible, been updated. This involved considerable data collections especially in Chapter 8 on "Public Support for the Arts in a Direct Democracy". I am grateful to Elena Fornera for being able to draw on her work. The preparation of this second edition would have been impossible without the care and input of effort by Reto Jegen. He helped me doing the revisions and prepared the manuscript for the printers. I owe him a great debt of gratitude. I also thank Rosemary Brown for checking the English and Dr. Martina Bihn for making the paperback edition possible. Zurich, in January 2003 Table of Contents Preface v Part I Combining Art and Economics Chapter 1- Economics of Art: A Personal Survey 1 Chapter 2- Art: The Economic Point of View 19 Part II Museums and Performing Arts Chapter 3- For Art's Sake - Open Up the Vaults 35 Chapter 4- Superstar Museums 49 Chapter 5- Special Exhibitions and Festivals: Culture's Booming Path to Glory 67 Chapter 6- Private Faces in Public Places: A Case Study of the New Beyeler Art Museum 95 x Table of Contents Part III Supporting the Arts Chapter 7- How Can the Arts Be Publicly Promoted? 105 Chapter 8- Public Support for the Arts in a Direct Democracy 127 Chapter 9- Creativity, Government and the Arts 141 Part IV Art Investment and Evaluation Chapter 10- Art Investment Returns 157 Chapter 11- Evaluating Cultural Property 181 Chapter 12- Art Fakes - What Fakes? 197 References 211 Index ofN ames & Authors 237 Subject Index 243 Chapter 1- Economics of Art: A Personal Survey 1. Art Economics Today The economics of art has established itself as a major discipline within the economic approach to the social sciences. This approach is based on a systematic study of the interaction between the behavior of individuals and institutions existing in society!. The economic approach to the social sciences champions a totally new kind of inter-disciplinarity. Up till now, inter-disciplinarity has been understood to be a combination of various disciplinary approaches. This has often led to a meeting of minds at a rather low quality level, often not more than just well-formulated trivialities. In contrast, the new kind of inter-disciplinarity proposed here is based on a unique analytical method (the economic way of thinking), which has been used to study a large variety of problems and issues. The model of human behavior applied here carefully distinguishes preferences, i. e. what people desire, and constraints imposed by social institutions, income, prices and the amount of time available. It has been successful in accounting for phenomena in and beyond economIcs. See more fully Chapter 2.
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