Work at all costs.

Summary Two topoi relating to the artistic retributions cohabit curiously. A first one, that of "art for art's sake", insists on the gratuity of the engagement in an activity defined as vocational and which would be accomplished fully only in its perfect autonomy. The monetary retributions are considered as a threat or a defilement altering the purity of the activity. The commitment to work is then based on the exclusive quest for symbolic rewards (pleasure, prestige of the profession, etc.). The second scheme insists on monetary rewards, and on the existence of a star system involving spectacular inequalities of income in the world of the arts, which paradoxically remain legal (Menger, 2002).