New Statesman - Arts - Pile it high: "Pile it high
The Back Half
Suzi Parker
Monday 11th July 2005
Galleries - Discount shopping and fine art? Suzi Parker on the latest offer from Wal-Mart
A small town in the hilly corner of a rural American southern state seems an unlikely place for a multimillion-dollar art museum. It seems less strange when one considers its founder: Alice Walton, heiress and daughter of Sam Walton, who created Wal-Mart Stores in 1950 in downtown Bentonville, Arkansas. The world's largest retailer (2003 global revenue: $259bn) has its world headquarters in this small city, which can credit its population boom, house-price increase and lack of unemployment to its late, famous resident. Companies with connections to the discount giant, such as Gillette, have also moved in so that their salesmen and company officials can be close to Wal-Mart leaders. But art?"
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