The Financial Impact of Art Donations and Cultural Significance in Canada

If you were to spend an afternoon wandering around an art museum, you’d see hundreds of pieces, if not thousands. But the reality is, what you see on display is only a small percentage of a museum’s holdings. Depending on the institution, anywhere from 95 to 99 per cent of the artwork it owns is in storage – and according to a 2019 report, many of those storage spaces are so full that experts say the artworks may be at risk. 

Kate Taylor is the Globe’s visual arts critic. She’s on the show to explain how Canadian art museums ended up with such large collections, and how tax breaks are what drives collectors to donate their pieces.  

Questions? Comments? Ideas? Email us at 

thedecibel@globeandmail.com