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Museums between Private and Public - The Case of the Beyeler Museum in Basle

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  • Bruno S. Frey
  • Stephan Meier

Abstract

In Europe, ever more private museums are now entering the field. This paper investigates the behavior of one of these private museums, using an institutional approach of cultural economics. The Beyeler museum in Basle, Switzerland, is a privately founded art museum with an extraordinary collection of art works. Though less than five years old, it is acknowledged to be the most successful museum in Switzerland in terms of number of visitors. However, the Beyeler museum is not completely private but receives public support. We analyze how this influences the museum's behavior: (1) The directorate of the Beyeler museum stays away from the art market with its collection as public institutions do. (2) The museum embarks on a self-propelling process concerning special exhibitions, therewith losing some of its uniqueness. (3) Concerning visitors' amenities, differences between private and public museums emerge but to a lesser extent than expected according to theory.

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  • Bruno S. Frey & Stephan Meier, "undated". "Museums between Private and Public - The Case of the Beyeler Museum in Basle," IEW - Working Papers 116, Institute for Empirical Research in Economics - University of Zurich.
    • Handle: RePEc:zur:iewwpx:116
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    File URL: https://www.zora.uzh.ch/id/eprint/52016/1/iewwp116.pdf
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    1. repec:bla:scandj:v:86:y:1984:i:3:p:301-13 is not listed on IDEAS
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    3. Richard N. Rosett, 1991. "Art Museums in the United States: A Financial Portrait," NBER Chapters, in: The Economics of Art Museums, pages 129-178, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. John O'hagan, 1998. "Art Museums: Collections, Deaccessioning and Donations," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 22(2), pages 197-207, June.
    5. Martin Feldstein, 1991. "The Economics of Art Museums," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number feld91-1.
    6. Simon Gachter & Ernst Fehr, 2000. "Cooperation and Punishment in Public Goods Experiments," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 90(4), pages 980-994, September.
    7. Frey, Bruno S, 1994. "Cultural Economics and Museum Behaviour," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 41(3), pages 325-335, August.
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    Cited by:

    1. Carmen Camarero & Mª Garrido & Eva Vicente, 2011. "How cultural organizations’ size and funding influence innovation and performance: the case of museums," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 35(4), pages 247-266, November.
    2. Asuaga, Carolina & Rausell, Pau, 2006. "Un Análisis de la gestión de instituciones culturales: el caso específico de los Museos [Management in cultural organizations: the case of museums]," MPRA Paper 13756, University Library of Munich, Germany.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Museums; special exhibitions; state support; cultural economics;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • Z1 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics

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