The economies of cultural wealth

The cultural concept of the museum is ancient. It is named after the muses, daughters of personified memory as mother and the allfather deity, Zeus. From those distant days when the arch-poet Homer opened his narration of Odysseus’ heroism and victory with a plea to “the muse” to tell him of the “andra polytropon”, or man of many skills, people have dedicated museums as places for history, the arts, crafts and sciences in private, academic and public ownership, with or without entry fees, but generally with considerable investments. Museums are expensive. When the National Museum of China re-opened its doors in 2011, state media reported that the renovation of the 200,000 square meter space – “said to be the world’s largest national museum” according to china.org.cn – cost $379 million. The Louvre, with 9.3 million visitors in 2014, the top benchmark of all museum statistics, said in its most recent