Art: Pictures for Rent

Shopping for paintings makes most people nervous. For everyone lucky or unlucky enough to "fall in love" with a picture on sight, there are ten who know what they like but not what they would like to live with. The majority of art shoppers are apt to ask two dead-earnest questions which make dealers squirm: 1) "Do you think this picture will go with my other furnishings?" and 2) "Will my friends approve?"

To enable customers to answer both questions themselves, more and more U.S. galleries rent pictures out, at $1 to $80 a month. The galleries have discovered that more than 15% of all customers decide to buy what they have rented (galleries deduct the paid rental from the purchase price). Result: the art rental idea has taken hold both of commercial galleries and of museums interested in helping local artists, and is now sweeping the country. New York City, Buffalo, Minneapolis, Houston, Dallas, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Santa Barbara all boast rental services, and they are by no means all. Last fortnight Chicago's Art Institute joined the parade; last week the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center did the same.