On the Management of Hidden Artwork: A Public–Private Partnership Approach

Abstract

A global trend, represented by the case of Italy, is that of movable cultural heritage hidden – and often not properly recorded – in public museums’ warehouses. Legal frameworks pose limits to privatization in the management of cultural assets. We propose the creation of a regulated market for tradable, long-term concessions of movable artwork to encourage selected private operators to invest in artwork's extraction from public museums’ warehouses. The social and monetary value that fiscally constrained countries can derive from once-hidden public cultural heritage would outweigh that of traditional means of exploiting the value of artwork. At the same time, public ownership of the extracted works of art would be retained.