Stay "on loan"!

Dear Franz, I own an artwork purchased from a major New York gallery and I wrote twice, to both the former director and present director of a city-owned art museum to which I financially contribute, that my will says that I leave the piece to the museum.

I never received an acknowledgment.

Recently, a literary magazine had a long essay on the artist on the occasion of a show of his art in a major American museum. I sent the essay to my contacts at the museum mentioning that I had never received an acknowledgment.

At a museum event the other day, the museum director told me he recalled my letter but did not think it warranted a reply! Should I change my will?

Hello. For most of us, it's hard to keep track of our art. We've loaned this painting to this museum, and this sculpture to that museum. How many times have we been to a reception at a museum and we've noticed our own name underneath a painting? "That's mine?! I forgot about that one!" we exclaim. Let's have a virtual show of hands if that's happened to you more than fifty times. See! But I've never requested a thank you from a museum after telling them I was gifting something. Know why? I don't donate art. I know a friend who donated something Damian Hirst because he didn't care for it. Turns out, the museum then sold it for over a million euros or something. We were at Christie's together when we saw it go up. I said, "Isn't that the gutted cow sculpture that you gave to the Tate last year?" And you know what? It was. He wouldn't have only given a fraction of that profit as a financial contribution.

See?

That's really the meaning of art I think. Trends. Selling. I think so.