Paper presented at the Fifth International Conference on Cultural Economics held at the Canada Council, Ottawa, Canada, September 27-30, 1988.

The authors detail some conflicting cultural goals using the city of Florence and its museums as an example. Setting up the notion of different purposes for different actors on the urban scene, the Mabrys discuss Florence and its museums form a curatorial point of view in which preservation becomes the guiding idea. In addition, some pursue a short run economizing hypothesis in which access to the museum arts of the city is expressed by fewer hours of opening. This bureaucratic goal explains this restrictiveness and does not conflict but tends to support the curatorial notion of preservation. Still others want the artistic institution open to all and often so as to maximize income from tourists coming into the city. Yet, more often the tourist is best exploited economically in those situations where forced into the streets by restrictive museum hours, the tourist then spends more money and time enriching the rest of the community. In some sense then, all of the conflicting goals may in some compromised may come together. By restricting artistic output the city may achieve its greater economic benefit. In sum, there may not be great conflict between the curator, the bureaucrat and profit-taker.

The authors detail some conflicting cultural goals using the city of Florence and its museums as an example.