To an ever greater degree the work of art reproduced becomes the work of art designed for reproducibility. Instead of being based on ritual, it begins to be based on another practice - politics. Works of art are received and valued on different planes.
Artistic production begins with ceremonial objects destined to serve in a cult.
One may assume that what mattered was their existence, not their being on view. The elk portrayed by the man of the Stone Age on the walls of his cave was an instrument of magic. He did expose it to his fellow men, but in the main it was meant for the spirits. Today the cult value would seem to demand that the work of art remain hidden. With the emancipation of the various art practices from ritual go increasing opportunities for the exhibition of their products.