MICHAEL KIMMELMAN ESSAY

BERLIN - American art enthusiasts tend to idolize the Old World approach whereby governments subsidize culture. But a consequence is that European cultural institutions have, compared with those in the United States, next to no tradition of private giving. There are few, if any, tax incentives to entice private donations in many countries. Even volunteer work tends to be frowned upon: paid employees seem to consider it a threat, not a boon to public service.

That may be changing. The shadow culture secretary for Britain’s Conservative Party, Jeremy Hunt, recently promised to introduce “a U.S.-style culture of philanthropy” if the Tories come to power . Speaking before the State of the Arts conference in London, Mr. Hunt foresaw a “golden age” of tax breaks to encourage private donations and help cut back on government spending.

In Paris in December the Pompidou museum was shut down by a strike for more than two weeks, and other museums for several days, because France’s president, Nicolas Sarkozy, also wants to reduce arts support. He has proposed making cuts in the state work force, with its jobs for life and generous pensions, including at institutions like the Louvre and the palace of Versailles . The plan is for only one worker to replace every two who retire.

French museums are supposed to raise money if they want more workers. In short, to Americanize the system, as Mr. Hunt is proposing in Britain.

Didier Alaime, who represents the Confederation Generale du Travail, the country’s biggest union, in its dealings with the Culture Ministry, said that “the more public policies are dependent on private financing, the more they risk feeling the ups and downs of the market.” He added, “The more we’re dependent on outside financing, the less we” - he was speaking about the people of France - “control the policies that are financed.”

Here in Berlin I often escape for an hour or two to the Gemaldegalerie, this city’s museum of old master paintings, one of the best in the world. But because it’s off the beaten tourist path, and because this is Germany and not France, it is nearly always empty.

Bureaucratic benign neglect likewise sustains dozens of German opera companies, whose proliferation is a point of national pride. At the same time, by freeing these companies from market forces, it allows them to answer to pretty much no one except themselves. The abundance of mediocre opera productions in Germany is a consequence.

Even when government-sponsored culture begins with grand ambitions, the machinery of state can grind it down. Just as Georges Pompidou, France’s president, devised the Pompidou museum, his successor Francois Mitterrand opened the Orsay , and then Jacques Chirac did the same with the Branly museum for non-Western cultures. In those cases - politics twisted how objects are displayed, as artifacts of a dubious revisionist history at Orsay and, even if unwittingly, as exhibits in a colonialist zoo at Branly - they also produced shopping-mall-style museums.

The point? Government patronage is no panacea in Europe . Private patronage, meanwhile, can have its distinct advantages. True, there are conditions attached. But a variety of donors tend to allow an institution more independence and flexibility .

In Italy, where government-run museums struggle under sclerotic bureaucracies, private collectors and companies have set up foundations and exhibition spaces like the Fondazione Prada in Milan and the Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo in Turin that set a standard for contemporary art there. In Germany the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden, an opera house and concert hall criticized by many here for relying on private patronage, has competed with the Bayreuth and Salzburg festivals .

American museum directors must spend their careers soliciting donations, but by now government grants in the United States, which were always small, are beholden to special interests .

In an ideal world America would be more like Europe, and vice versa. In America’s case it’s probably too late. For the moment European museums are stuck between privatization and the lack of private donors.

You don’t have to be a Tory to believe that giving tax breaks would help spur charitable giving. Despite what the French unionist Mr. Alaime said, public support doesn’t spare cultural institutions from cutbacks when the global economy tanks. And rich donors might even help compensate in bad times. In any case they’re necessary. Like it or not, Europe is, in this respect anyway, lurching toward America.


MIGUEL MEDINA/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, ABOVE RIGHT; REMY DE LA MAUVINIERE/ASSOCIATED PRESS

The Louvre was renovated with money from Total, the oil company. Above, a strike in December closed the Pompidou Center.