Can We Put a Price on Art and History? The most important consideration facing the person responsible for securing new works of art or artifacts for a museum is to preserve culture and history. Another purpose is to educate others who would like to learn about these certain subjects. Art demonstrates glimpses of history, or just new styles of art, which serve as inspiration to other artists and people. Artifacts from the past, show a realistic viewpoint of how a certain era of people lived, also showing how our society has advanced throughout time. If I were to open a museum, my main goal would be to enrich the public with information and artifacts from the past. Unfortunately, a museum is a business, and without money a business cannot function. Therefore, museums have to make some sort of profit for them to function. For this exact reason, many museums have lost their way, and now focus more on being a business than on being a museum. Money should never be the main worry of any museum, as the main purpose is to benefit and enlighten society. Money is not just a struggle or worry for museums, but for any business and person in the world. That is why museums are investing more of their money into shops or stores that will make a profit for them. But, they should be investing money into new art or artifacts that will attract the public to the museum. An example of a museum or historical site becoming a business is John D. Rockefeller Jr.’s restoration of the historic Williamsburg. Handler criticizes the “new” Williamsburg, as being nothing more than a different generation of Disney World. The problem is that the “new” Williamsburg, comes across as a business, with suited employees, cleanliness and orderliness. To become a restoration of historic Williamsburg, the place needs to be more realistic to the time period of colonial Williamsburg. That means bringing in artifacts, keeping away from modern technology, and teaching guests how the people of colonial
