I think it is important to distinguish between the traditional notion of patronage and the public relations maneuvers parading as patronage today. In… - Hans Haacke

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I think it is important to distinguish between the traditional notion of patronage and the public relations maneuvers parading as patronage today. Invoking the name of Maecenas, corporations give themselves an aura of altruism. The American term sponsoring more accurately reflects that what we have here is really an exchange of capital: financial capital on the part of the sponsors and symbolic capital on the part of the sponsored. Most business people are quite open about this when they speak to their peers. , for example, says quite bluntly that he spends Cartier's money for purposes that have nothing to do with the love of art.