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Article: Pride and prejudice: the Britain audit: the arts.
- Article from:
- The Economist (US)
- Article date:
- September 4, 1993
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1993 Economist Newspaper Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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WITH help from James Bond, the Beatles and a language that is (more or less) spoken by a third of mankind, Britain has exported its actors and songs everywhere. It still does. The arts contribute an estimated Pounds6 billion ($9 billion) to the country's overseas earnings. Despite chronic complaints about lack of government support (subsidies are larger elsewhere in Europe), British arts are thriving.
However, few people would agree that commercial success is the only, or even the best, measure of artistic achievement. Unfortunately even fewer would agree on what such a measure should be. Undaunted, we have waded into this murky subject by clothing our wholly ...