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This thesis examines why and how art is collected and used by modern corporations. Primarily, the study is focused on Alcan Aluminium Ltd., but for purposes of comparison and illumination, substantial attention is paid to Martineau Walker, Loto-Quebec and the Banque Nationale du Canada, all Montreal-based companies that have collected art for at least twenty years. / An historical introduction outlining the relationship between the arts and business---from the Renaissance in Europe to its place of greatest expansion in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries; in the U.S.A. as well as in Canada---begins the discussion. An attempt is made to position the activities of modern corporate art collecting between two poles---that of the individual collector and that of the institutional art museum. / Motives for collecting include, among many, the search for distinction and the desire to create a perception in the community of humanitarian standards guiding the corporation. The ways in which corporate motives contribute to the creation of a positive external corporate art identity, and thus a productive business environment, are examined and developed, as are the principal objections of their chief public detractor, artist-writer Hans Haacke. / In three of the four corporations studied, original research on the behavioural and emotional reactions of employees to the corporate art surrounding them has allowed an in-depth analysis of the internal effects of art on employees. Foremost among these are feelings of pride, well-being and the enhancement of self-identity. / Finally, a brief discussion of the role of mediators is offered, in particular that of the corporate curator in the modern art world.