Collectors & Museums
Collectors and museums are intimately linked: collectors seek out curatorial advice and museums rely on collectors’ generosity for acquisitions. James Fenton opens Apollo’s special issue on private collectors and the public realm by exploring some of the consequences of this complex relationship.
James Fenton, Sunday, 29th June 2008
It is a scene worthy of a Daumier, or a Rowlandson perhaps: husband and wife being led around an auction preview by an adviser, and pausing before a work of art to consider its merits both in itself and, the adviser respectfully suggests, ‘as an addition to your collection’. Every collector can use a little expert advice. Most of it comes from the trade, but some – perhaps it feels just a little more objective, a little superior in quality – comes from museum curators.
Curators are supposed to be experts, and the ones who really are experts are courted by the auction houses, by the galleries and by collectors alike. They are taken to vaults and warehouses, and shown masterpieces. They are consulted in back rooms. They are thanked in catalogues and over delicious lunches. They are doing their job. For a part of their job is to maintain good relations with collectors and trade alike and, if they are generous with their attentions (assuming of course that their integrity is not compromised in this), they are not abusing their employers’ time. A moment will arise when they will feel able to call in a favour – a contribution, a loan, or a gift for their museum.
It is a world in which friendship, diplomacy and tact are mingled with rivalry, mistrust and something that, viewed in a certain light, can look very like greed. No collector likes to be cheated, of course, but there are remedies for that. On the other hand, nobody likes to feel a little foolish, as one well might having spent a large sum on the whole unwisely. For any adventurous collector is taking a considerable gamble with his self-respect.
And any ambitious museum or gallery will be looking for ways of extending the scope of its acquisitions beyond what their usually modest budgets can cover. Securing the cooperation of a group of collectors is an approach which goes back, at least, to Wilhelm von Bode and imperial Berlin.
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