Abstract

The debate about support of the arts has often preferred tax incentives to private grants rather than direct public support, also in the light of the supposed perverse redistributional impact of the latter. But the extensive use of the former, due to the progressive reduction in public cultural budgets, is likely to generate a strong competition among cultural institution in order for them to be selected as recipients of private corporate support. In such a way, the crucial choices of cultural policies are passed on to private corporations, eventually constraining many projects and reducing their quality. The main victim is cultural pluralism, and its eventual outcome will be the reduction of the spectrum of cultural languages, forms or institutions.