Global views of arts funding

I recently came across a story on the BBC online service which rocked me about a museum director in Italy who has decided to burn art to protest massive cuts to the arts in Italy. If you click on the highlighted words, you can read the article for yourself.

This is a totally shocking development for me. While I am deeply disturbed by the many cuts, I do not support the notion of deliberately destroying art.  Anna Hergert recently invited me to do a guest blog for her on the lifetime of any art piece. My thesis was that we should do our best to look after our art, but not to obsess about keeping it forever as that usually means packing it away in a cool, dark place where no one can see or handle it.

However, to deliberately set fire to art, and even with the artist's consent, strikes me as a trivialization of all that art stands for. A publicity stunt that can only marginalize an already suffering industry.

Read the article, see what Anna has to say about this same topic and weigh in with your thoughts.