Bank making loans -- of art

Bank of America has launched a free exhibition and loan program that will make its vast art collection available to museums around the world.

Participating institutions may organize shows from the bank’s holding of paintings, sculptures, prints and photographs or select one of about 30 prepackaged exhibitions. The bank will pay all expenses -- crating, shipping, insurance and marketing.

Twenty-six exhibitions are planned over the next two years, including a survey of contemporary art at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia this summer and prints by David Hockney, Jim Dine and Richard Diebenkorn at the St. Louis University Museum of Art in the fall.

-- Suzanne Muchnic