It is the assumption of this book that a work of art is a gift, not a
commodity. Or, to state the modern case with more precision, that works of
art exist simultaneously in two "economies," a market economy and a gift
economy. Only one of these is essential, however: a work of art can survive
without the market, but where there is no gift there is no art.
-- Lewis Hyde, The Gift: Imagination and the Erotic Life of Property
