Walking around Pompidou Center in Paris last week , I noticed that a number of works had a sign that were donated by artists to the museum in lieu of paying their taxes in cash. I believe Italy has a similar program, and both governments have amassed great art collections as a result. Artists do need to demonstrate the market value of their work through prior sales, so my doodles would never pay taxes in Italy or France. USA seems to have some kind of a program for donating art to museums by art collectors, but I never heard of an artist using their artwork instead of tax.
It is possible that the art market in US is liquid enough that an artist can simply sell their work. Still, I wonder what kind of art the public would have been able to see and have access to if this was a viable option in the US.
