Private Collections “Versus” Public Collections

Abstract

This relation has two "faces": private collections wishing to become somehow more open to the public, or/and public collections receding, leaving (willingly or unwillingly) space to the private participation. Having in mind that collecting is often idiosyncratic, one wonders which are the principal factors of divergence, in order that collecting acquires an institutional character. According to one opinion, the true collections are necessarily private, since they have the signature of the personal preferences of the collectors. Would such a "reading" be verified today? The public access and the musealization of the private collections are becoming determinant factors. What are the reasons that make a collector give up on his or her right of exclusive usufruct of his or her cultural objects and share them with the public? Philanthropy, social prestige, fiscal benefits, the idea of the collection's continuity with the name of the collector linked to a public institution? And what are the contemporary tendencies in the field of private collecting 1 ? In these parts of Europe where the State does not give enough money to the art museums, private collections have acquired "almost without a fight" an increasing power during the first decade of the 21st century. 2 In Switzerland, since several decades ago has been established a sort of collaboration between public museums, big collectors' families and new financially powerful private institutions. In France, on the one hand there is always a big budget available to the public institutions for buying art works and on the other hand there is the right of museums to buy first in case of auctions or heritages following the death of important artists.