The market and museums: the increasing power of collectors and private galleries in the contemporary art world

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article reveals different ways in which actors in the art market – both prominent collectors and high end galleries – manage to intervene in museum institutions’ choices and, thus, strengthen their weight in the creation of art value. While in the 1960s and 1990s, the French sociologist Raymonde Moulin argued that the value of art is constituted at the junction of the market and the museum, but tended towards the pre-eminence of institutions, the market has considerably strengthened its role in the creation of artistic value since that time. The example of the French case, central in this article, illustrates a development where leading collectors – Bernard Arnault, CEO of the luxury group LVMH and François Pinault, CEO of the Kering group and owner of the auction house Christie’s – compete with museums through the institutions that they control and can influence the choices of public institutions. A similar trend is examined in the context of high end galleries which now have the financial means and personnel to offer exhibitions capable of competing with museums.