"Art and wealth are rarely strangers—one person’s history of art is another’s sociology of conspicuous consumption," states Adrian Ellis of London's The Art Newspaper. Recent changes in wealth distribution toy with the art world in a myriad of ways. The art market, now vibrant, and the museum building boom introduce a vital issue to the artistic community: the relationship between active private collectors and public museums. Lately, on a global scale, "new museums and galleries that are conceived, funded and run privately" have sprung up, creating a phenomenon similar to that which occured in the U.S. Guilded Age. The collections are permanent, and act as significant additions to "the cultural fabric of the city", encompassing a "range of curatorial, conservational, public and scholarly programmes." Founders of such institutions do not believe that donation to public institutions affords any degree of control - their draw backs include limited opportunities for display, and even lack of conservational standards. However, these new institutions are "often erratic in their governance," and the art represents acquisitive interests of a single person, a "passionate and single minded interest" - the complete opposite of public museum's universalist impulses. As economic inequalities widen, the class of art collectors is growing; there will be not halt to privately funded museums in the future. Join discussion...