Off the Market: Gift Economies and Art at the Loeb

Gift-giving was fundamental to early human societies and, in the days before money, gifts formed the basis of exchange. Today instead of living in an economy based on gifts, “a gift economy,” we live in a “market economy” organized around money. Yet the ritualized use of gifts persists across many domains of human activity. Art is often the vehicle for these transactions. This exhibition displayed objects from the Loeb’s collection that highlight some of the economic principles at play when art is given as a gift. Exploring specific moments in this practice’s history raises questions, posed here from an economist’s perspective. This exhibition also considered the trust underlying exchanges of gifts of art. Gifts are not always beneficial: Economists and others have long studied the waste and discomfiture associated with gifts. It is precisely because of their inherent risk—giving a gift makes us vulnerable because it might not be appreciated or reciprocated—that gifts can build trust. Art, given its ever-changing nature and its singularly subjective character, is among the most high-stakes of gifts.

This exhibition was supported by the Mellon Foundation. It was co-organized by the Loeb and Benjamin Ho, Professor of Economics and author of Why Trust Matters: An Economist's Guide to the Ties That Bind Us (Columbia University Press, 2021).

There are works that appeared in this exhibition that were loans to the Loeb and therefore do not appear on this website.