Museums don’t own all of their collections though, and they too make decisions on what to display at any moment. Not all objects are worthy of display, some get rotated out back into some rich person’s attic.

Almost the entire collection of a museum is in storage or in archives if we consider number of objects as a whole. Only a very small proportion is on display and some of those on display will be from other museums.

I'd be very interested to hear about any respectable museum that sends off items that are not displayed to be stored into some rich person's attic (or for display at a private residence as I assume you are implying).

If you have a valuable artifact that you don't have on display, renting it for a large sum to someone is a reasonable thing to do. Of course it goes without saying that you ensure whoever gets it takes care of it. Better it be on display at a rich person's house where I might get an invite to see it than in the basement where nobody can see it.

As has been noted museums tend to be on the brink of financial insolvency. Getting a rich person to rent some art is a valid way to get enough money to stay solvent and continue to provide art to others. There is a lot more great art worth preserving than there are museums in the world.

Note, the above is not a comment on IF it is done. I have no idea if it is possible for someone to actually do this.

Nothing like "loaning" out cultural heritage on the basis of who's the most solvent, museums or rich people.

As opposed to letting it sit in a basement/attic unseen?

> It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest.

The big museums all have a warehouse somewhere: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smithsonian_Museum_Support_Cen...

If you constantly collect items, and never discard them, then your collection will just keep growing (as will your warehousing bills). There's far more than can be put on display at many locations.

The modern art museum here in stockholm often borrow items for their exhibitions, from other museums, artists or private collectors.

Borrowing items to display is not the same as giving away your own when you’re bored with them.

It’s kind of the opposite — lots of museum pieces are privately owned and loaned to museums.

What else would a museum do with a piece on loan to them that they don't want anymore besides return it to the owner? That could be another museum or a private collection.

That's neither what you said nor how museum loans work though.

Loaned items are specifically loaned to be displayed for a length of time, it's not like borrowing a grass trimmer off of facebook.

Considering their mission statement about making the worlds information universally accessible and contemporary goals around literary archival it’s not a stretch to believe they had history on their mind.

“Mission”

What's that supposed to mean?

Aliens

Furthermore, museums curate what they hold whereas YouTube probably has far more i can haz cheezburger videos than humanity will ever need