Art Collecting and Gifts to Museums: An Anthropology of Donations

Art Collecting and Gifts to Museums questions why private collectors donate their collection, or parts of it, to museums and examines what the implications of this gifting process might be.

Presenting case studies from Europe, North America, East Asia, and the South Pacific, this book is concerned with both elite and popular collections and examines the act of donating art from the collector’s point of view. Demonstrating that art museums depend on donations from private collectors, Paul van...