Romanian culture market between communism and the Middle Ages

After the suicide of Romanian pop singer Mădălina Manole economic policy expert Mircea Cosea writes in online newspaper standard.ro's business blog that the Romanian state's culture policy marginalises Romanian art and artists. "The culture market has - if I may say so - a connotation that is part communist, part Medieval. It is communist because art and artists are subject to an egalitarian-collectivist vision in which artists are assessed according to how many years they have been working rather than the individual merits of their work. …It is an untaxed, Medieval type market because in this country we have many barons of the transformation who can afford to maintain their own 'personal artists', whom they then have make their appearances at weddings, baptisms and private parties for a select circle of friends."

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