EN
The issues discussed in this article concentrate on selected legal and economic aspects of the art rental institution. Civil Code regulations do not contain a specific art rental contract. It is shown in practice that temporary loans of historic objects (or, in a broader sense, culture goods) take place on the basis of a loan contract, leasing contract or a commodate. What is worth our attention is the fact that the art rental institution should be approached on two layers. The first one includes temporary loans of historic objects for display purposes in Poland, the other represents the promotion of the Polish culture abroad and participation of Polish historic objects in foreign exhibitions. From an economic point of view, the art rental services market is not identical with the art market. Consumers of these two markets differ greatly from one another, thus, they cannot be classified in conjunction. The market analysis carried out in this study indicated an increase in the number of companies specialised in temporary loans of historic objects, which allows us to speculate that there is certain demand for a given service. Is it true that a trend consisting in temporary loans of works of art for decorative purposes has found its way to Poland?