With the European governments (and governments worldwide) hacking away at funding for their nation's cultural institutions — leading to the literal collapse of Italian historical monuments and uncharacteristic scrambling on the part of the Louvre to gather donations to buy a painting — traditional arguments opposing corporate arts sponsorship are becoming quieter and quieter. Bank of America Merill Lynch announced in May that it would provide funding to restore historical treasures in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa through its Art Conservation Program. Now it has released a list of some of the works and institutions that will benefit from its financial support.
The bank's charitable foundation will channel funding to diverse cultural mainstays including Westminster Abbey, which will receive money to conserve ten historical pieces, among them coronation materials, medieval objects, manuscripts, and drawings. Madrid's Museo Nacional Centro de Reina Sofia will receive the bank's help in preserving Picasso's "Woman in Blue" and the Louvre will be awarded funds to conserve its marble Winged Victory of Samothrace. The Arab Image Foundation in Beirut will have aid taking care of their collection of photographs, while the bank plans to lend a hand caring for a group of iziphephetu (beaded aprons) at the Wits Art Museum in Johannesburg.

It seems that Bank of America Merill Lynch's art team favors Bronzino, as the conservation program will help restore works by the 16th-century Italian artist at museums in Nice, Budapest, and Milan. Other major names that will be preserved for posterity by the project are Rubens and Kirchner, whose paintings in London and Frankfurt respectively will be spruced up thanks to funds from the bank.

"This is a propitious time to actively engage in preserving these treasures,"  Bank of America arts and culture executive Rena DeSisto said in a statement. And while corporate philanthropy is a trend on the rise, with arts institutions across America and the world leaning heavily on the support of big businesses, the Bank of America has a history of cultural giving. Earlier this fall, the bank offered $10 million in art and funding to the MFA Boston, and recently has sponsored "Gauguin: Maker of Myth" at Tate Modern and "Manet: The Man who Invented Modern Art" at Musée D’Orsay. In an August op-ed in the Guardian, DeSisto reminded readers that, "more engagement with business need not be the death knell for the arts." In fact, she told quaking at the idea of branded art, "it may well be the key to its future."