L.A. Museums Are Rethinking the Rules of Art Ownership. Will Others Follow?

While many things about museums have changed over the years, and many more are changing now, the growth of their permanent collections has remained a constant. The average museum collection expands by as much as 2 percent per year. That may not sound like a lot, but it means they double every 36 years. The result is that the collections museums celebrate are increasingly not seen by the public, relegated to storage while imposing untold financial costs on museums—and untold environmental costs on the public—forever.