ART LOTTERIES.

Patea Mail, 26 May 1882, Page 1 (Supplement)

ART LOTTERIES.

It is curious that for many years lotteries have been more or less intimately connected with art. The legislature, very peremptory in abolishing them as an institution, admitted a saving clause iu the interest of. the painter. That was in Gborge IV. time, and some years before, exceptions ] had been made in favour of the British " Museum and of the Boydell Picture Collection. Since the Act of Q-eorge IV. attempts have been made to evade the statute, but they have been for the most part rigorously put down. In 1860 a Mr. Dethier sought to establish at the Argyll Room, a lottery for a Twelfth-Night cake, but the Treasury interfered, and the scheme was declared illegal. Art remains the only practical exception, and it is now a question whether its exemption is not antagonistic to the interest ot the painter. Bond fide art lotteries, or, as they are called, art unions, no doubt do. great good; but we have long passed the time when the artist was an exotic, requiring delicate nurture and careful rearing. A competent painter now has as good a profession as a doctor or a lawyer, and it is a question whether a law enacted for the benefit of public morals should be suspended for the protection of a 'class now so well able to protect themselves. Of one point, at all events, there need be no question. Any attempt to evade the Act under a colourable pretext of conforming to the letter of it should be put down with a firm hand. Most of the socalled Art Unions that are held all over the country are really lotteries, with all the moral disadvantages of gambling, and with no compensating benefit to art. The prizes offered are a sufficient proof that the inducement to the gambler is to get a big object for a small price, and not to advance or develop true taste. The Lottery Act should not be overruled to promote vulgarity; but when, in addition to this, it is found the speculation has no other object than to benefit speculators by illegal methods, the authorities should deal firmly and sharply with the fraud.— Globe.