The Private Museum of Contemporary Art: Cultural Capital and the Reshaping of Heritage (Contextualizing Art Markets)

What is the purpose of private museums? Who do they benefit and what threat do they pose to their public counterparts?This book examines the global phenomenon of the private museum of contemporary art, assessing the benefits gained by founder-owners of such institutions, and the impact they have on canon formation and art history. The public museum, long considered a pillar of civic society, has for centuries been the manager and keeper of national collections and narratives, the guardian of cultural patrimony.This important role is now being compromised. Private museums, with their ever-expanding collections and often-unlimited financial resources, contribute considerably to this erosion.When it comes to contemporary art, the most sought-after commodity on the art market, this shift of ownership from public to private is at its most pronounced.Thus, control over the creation and safeguarding of future heritage is increasingly in private hands. In this book art dealer and critic Yoram