THE ART MUSEUM is represented by many metaphors: the palace, the temple, and the mausoleum; the theme park and the shopping mall; the cabinet of curiosities and the chamber of dreams. Its purposes, largely those of preservation and display, seem precise enough to need no explanation, but the questions provoked by the museum are legion. What values guide the amassing of the museum’s contents, the artworks or artifacts that are assembled, cared for, and shown, and whom do those values represent? Since the museum, as an institution, belongs to history as much as the objects it contains, can its...