A cabinet of curiosities : Inquiries into museums and their prospects / Stephen E. Weil

1. Speaking about Museums: A Meditation on Language -- 2. Progress Report from the Field: The Wintergreen Conference on Performance Indicators for Museums -- 3. Creampuffs and Hardball: Are You Really Worth What You Cost or Just Merely Worthwhile? -- 4. A Brief Meditation on Museums and the Metaphor of Institutional Growth -- 5. Museums, Hitler, and the Business of Isness -- 6. Publicly-Chosen Art: What Standards Apply? -- 7. Review: Exclusion Principle -- 8. On a New Foundation: The American Art Museum Reconceived -- 9. The Great andRenowned Kelly Sock Collection: A Fable -- 10. Collecting a Private Art Collector: In Search of the Ideal -- 11. The Deaccession Cookie Jar -- 12. Testimony Prepared for the Financial Accounting Standards Board, Norwalk, Connecticut -- 13. Review: Objects of Knowledge -- 14. Tax Policy and Private Giving -- 15. Excellence, Autonomy, and Diversity: The Case for Tax-Exempt Cultural Organizations -- 16. Testimony Offered before the Independent Commission -- 17. Dangerous Hypo/theticol -- 18. Some Perplexing Admissions -- 19. Rob Roy's Gift Revisited -- 20. Resale Royalties for Artists : Boon or Boondoggle? -- 21. Resale Royalty Hearing: New York City -- 22. Unpublished Materials and Copyright: What Can a Museum Do? -- 23. The Art World Olympics -- 24. Remarks following Receipt of the Katherine Coffey Award.