A number of years a o I wrote a feature article on a New Mexican artist whose heroic-scale steel piece had been purchased by the University. He delivered an object almost identical to his maquette but with one small detail changed; the inclusion of a 20 ft. length of razor wire. The Hispanic community was deeply offended by this object (assuming incorrectly that it made reference to illegal immigration) and rallied to have the University deny payment. The artist made himself a great deal of national publicity out of this: censorship, racism (he is partly native American)etc.
The point I’m getting at is the University and Government of New Mexico decided after that to only buy work already made. This one artist’s egotism limited possibilities for every other artist in the state. Almost no sculptor I know has any heroic-scaled work laying around. The same kind of thing will come of this egotistical tantrum and will make amazing institutions like Mass MOCA less inclined to spend money.
This kind of tantrum seems to me to have become unfashionable with the last Bull market in art objects, around the end of the 80’s.