One LA museum hosts an exhibition in the fine art of giving - The National: In the end, it is not necessarily the thought that counts, but the price tag," Komaroff notes candidly in the exhibition catalogue.
Conceived so broadly, the process of gift-giving was crucial to diplomacy, civic and religious philanthropy, and to the international exchange of art and wealth. Gifts, then and now, are rarely acts of pure generosity, says Komaroff, who notes that the exchanges of objects (and cash) reflect relations of power and obligation.
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