American museums are the envy of the world in a certain regard. U.S. tax laws, which deem private support of cultural institutions (and universities, and hospitals, and charitable institutions) essential to the public good, leverage donations to them in a powerful way. Gifts of kind that have enhanced in value over the years, or financial instruments, or property, may be deducted against one’s income for tax purposes according to their value at the time of the gift, not their original cost—often a huge difference. Government must guard that appraised values not be hokey, and recipient museums be careful to accept only gifts of quality, but this very enticing tax incentive has fattened American museum galleries and storerooms with marvelous collections, furnished building funds to display and care for them, endowed curators and research grants, and built up a contagious patron momentum.

Many of the smaller museums in Europe, by contrast, are owned, administrated, and entirely funded by local municipalities. Often they house extraordinary collections sent back by missionaries or archeological expeditions, or gifted by private connoisseurs or royalty out of the goodness of their heart, or bought years ago from scholars and ex-colonials. But now-a-days the governors of these locales must contend too with demands for security and health and development, and a museum’s luster rarely stems the resulting triage. Collections remain moribund, there is scant funding for publication or research, and curators re-hang their shows on a shoestring.

Some years ago, a new director at the storied Victoria and Albert Museum in London outraged the art world by firing staff and slashing exhibitions etc, then advertising the place as a grand cafe with museum attached! The current crisis situation affecting many Dutch museums presents a wider case in point. Holland controlled the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia) for hundreds of years. Elegant ancient sculpture in bronze and stone and gold from that Hindu Buddhist past, rich animist carvings in wood and ivory, fascinating historical textiles, carved kris handles with damascened blades of meteoric nickel, archives of gamelan music and masked dance and photographs, a hive of academic insight—these have been the glory and world magnet for a whole tier of Dutch museums. The largest ones, the Tropenmuseum (Royal Tropical Institute) in Amsterdam and the Rijksmuseum voor Volkenkunde in Leiden, enjoy national government support and a research link with Leiden University. But the Volkenkundig Museum in Breda has closed its doors, and the Volkenkundig Museum in Groningen. The fine Indonesisch Ethnografisch Museum in Delft operates on a miniscule budget and the devotion of its staff. The Wereld Museum in Rotterdam, with its fabulous Oceana collection and famous Indonesian holdings, has recently let go nearly all its curators and is planning to sell large chucks of its collection!

Isn’t it time for Europe and other blocks of the booming world to prioritize incentives big time that infuse private monies into their cultural fabric?