One of the most esteemed painters of ancient Greece caused much shaking of heads by charging admission to see one of his paintings. He would hardly recognize the art world today.
Chap. XII. Of the Picture of Helena drawn by Zeuxis.
Zeuxis the Heracleote having drawn Helena [Helen of Troy], got much money for the Picture; for he admitted not every one that came accidentally, or out of a desire to see it, but made them first pay money before they saw it. Hereupon the Heracleote gaining much money by the Picture, the Grecians of that time called this Helena a Curtezan.
——Aelian, Various History, Book IV, chapter XII, translated by Thomas Stanley.