Armani - the new model for art funding

By Anna Tobin

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BRITAIN'S museums are being encouraged to look for other sources of income as public money is not so forthcoming. But what is being done to stop commercialism going too far Across the Atlantic, there is already concern that the Guggenheim Museum in New York has over stepped the mark.

The Guggenheim has received a thorough dressing down from American art critics for its current exhibition on the work of�Georgio Armani. The exhibition entitled Fashion Visionary and Seminal Designer details the 30-year career of the designer and features videos of Armani advertising campaigns and pictures of Hollywood stars in his clothes. After you've seen the show you can then buy the book, which features more tributes to the man and pictures of his work.

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By pure coincidence, according to the official line, the fashion designer also recently donated $15 million to the gallery.

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Unwittingly or not, Armani has received considerable publicity from the controversy sparked by his donation and the timing of his exhibition, which moves to the Guggenheim in Bilbao, Spain this spring and is then likely to tour the world.

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The American art world is outraged. 'It's a compromising sponsorship to clean up the bottom line,' argues Maxwell Anderson, director of the Whitney Museum of American Art.

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What do you think �Do you think benefactors to the arts have every right to get something back Or, do you think art should not be tainted by the commercial brush Join The AnswerBank message boards here

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