Art is important across the pond

The French government will start giving interest free loans to people who want to buy art up to 10,000 euros. They are working on a plan to give corporations more incentive to buy art as well. Some of the reasons they cite for enacting this plan:

• "the idea was 'to bring private individuals closer to this act of buying a work of art' adding that the loan 'was the price, for example, of a flat-screen television'."
• "help young artists."
  

A similar program exists in the UK to encourage Britons to buy contemporary art. Why do they do this?

Arts Council England aims to put the arts at the heart of national life. One of the ways we do this is to encourage people to live with art they love. We also want to help artists live by their creative output and support galleries who sell high quality contemporary art.

I wonder what it would take to enact such a proposal in this country? We'd have to re-jigger our entire value system as a society.