The "New Museology" has historically critiqued cultural policies for their so-called "instrumentalism". However, as policy and museum practice have evolved, the relationship between cultural policy and art museums increasingly reflects a collaborative, co-constructive dynamic. Since the inception of the "National Art Museum Collection Masterpieces Exhibition Season" (hereafter referred to as the "Exhibition Season") in 2012, the Jiangsu Art Museum has participated continuously over 14 years, gradually developing a comprehensive curatorial development pathway that integrates collection building, academic research, collection revitalization, public aesthetic education, and cultural heritage transmission. With the enhancement of its overall exhibition curation standards, public cultural service capabilities, and institutional brand influence-amplified by strong support from the Jiangsu Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism and guided by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism's objectives-the Jiangsu Art Museum has established a rich and diverse collection system. This system is transitioning from a traditional object-centered model of collecting toward a human-centered, systematic approach to collection activation. This transformation aims to maximize the social, cultural, and scholarly benefits of art collections by leveraging platform advantages for broader public engagement.

Today, sculptures of Śiva Naṭarāja are displayed at the centre of South Asian galleries in museums in Europe and North America. A significant number of these bronzes and some two hundred South Indian images entered major Western collections through a network of actors involving the French archaeologist Gabriel Jouveau-Dubreuil (1885-1945), the art dealer C.T. Loo (1880-1957), and the Musée Guimet in Paris. Jouveau-Dubreuil settled in the French colony of Pondicherry in 1909 and supplied artefacts to C.T. Loo from 1924 onwards, in close collaboration with the Musée Guimet. Combining archival research, fieldwork, and oral history, this paper explores the entangled histories of museums and art markets and highlights the role of Indian intermediaries in art collecting. Jouveau-Dubreuil relied on a small group of agents, who belonged to the French-speaking Indian elite and had previously been his pupils at the Collège Colonial in Pondicherry. These agents engaged with a wide range of actors and acquired artefacts through transactions shaped by informational, political, and economic asymmetries. The commodification of South Indian images resulted from collaborations, tensions within source communities, divergent claims to custodianship, imperial rivalries, and the contingent actions of local supply networks, ultimately shaping the art-historical canon of ‘Indian art’.

The figurative motifs in the portable art of Grotta Romanelli (southern Italy) within the late Pleistocene art tradition of southwestern Europe

Based on the fundamental studies of Giorgio Nicodemi (1957) and Giulio Bora (1997), as well as subsequent updates, the essay begins with a reconstruction of the events that led Federico Borromeo to establish the Academia del Disegno within the Ambrosiana (June 25, 1620), highlighting the role of some collaborators (Guido Mazenta and Girolamo Brosieri) and the connection with the expansion of the architectural complex and the donation of the cardinal’s art collection (1618). This is followed by a reflection on the Congregatio founded by Borromeo for the restoration of sacred buildings in the Archdiocese of Milan, and on its Constitutiones promulgated in the same year the Academy was opened. Still lacking a systematic study are the various printed and manuscript versions of the Academy’s Rules, produced and preserved in the Ambrosiana, whose variations help understand the developments and objectives that motivated Federico in founding this place of training for artists and architects, closely tied to the overall program of the Ambrosiana and the pastoral mission in the diocese.

ABSTRACT This article examines the accessibility, transparency, and interconnectivity of provenance research in museum collections. While the field originated in efforts to document Nazi-era looting, it now also addresses colonial contexts, state succession, and broader cultural heritage claims. Drawing on web-harvested data from 42 departments across 14 institutions in Germany and the United States, the article proposes a systematic framework for evaluating provenance information. The findings reveal differences in data quality, completeness, and standardization, alongside structural constraints shaped by institutional workflows, technology, and resources. Although digitization has expanded public access to provenance information, we still observe significant gaps between professional guidelines and institutional practices. The article therefore calls for standardized data models, interoperable infrastructures, and sustainable strategies for provenance documentation. By identifying both persistent barriers and emerging opportunities, it underscores the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration, shared standards, and wider public accessibility to strengthen equitable and trustworthy stewardship of cultural heritage.

This study examines the synergy between interior design and the appreciation of texture art through the framework of Csikszentmihalyi’s Creative Systems Theory, focusing on the interaction among individual, domain, and social dimensions in shaping the creative practices of collector-designers. A qualitative phenomenological approach was employed, with data obtained through semi-structured in-depth interviews with professional interior designers who are also active collectors of texture art. The analysis was conducted using a systematic thematic approach based on the three dimensions of the theory. The results indicate that the individual dimension is reflected in the integration of design principles and aesthetic sensitivity, flow experiences when interacting with artworks, and reflections on textural expressiveness beyond technical aspects. Domain interaction generates a new aesthetic framework, in which classical design principles enrich material interpretation and exposure to experimental art encourages a paradigm shift toward adaptive approaches. Meanwhile, the field dimension operates through networks with galleries, curators, and artists that facilitate creative dialogue and curatorial intuition. This study contributes to the understanding of cross-disciplinary creativity, showing that innovation emerges through dynamic interactions between individual combinatorial abilities, knowledge exchange across domains, and the support of a creative ecosystem that fosters collaboration and reflection in contemporary design and art practices.

The article examines the contradictory features of art localization and accessibility in the metropolitan area of Milan, Italy. Economic growth often generates and sharpens new inequalities whose most evident symptom in cities is the increasing distance between the central areas and the suburban patchwork. Commuting workers prevail in the center, and residents crowd the suburbs. Nevertheless, works of art and cultural actions are concentrated in the center, widening the gap between social groups. Paradoxically, many works of art from museums endowments and private collections are locked in deposits and are therefore inaccessible even in the central areas. Thus, the cultural, commercial, and social maps of Milan prove contradictory and inconsistent. The study aims to understand the relationship between the contemporary art collections and the dynamics of urban life in Milan. The theoretical framework has its starting point in the tensions between conservation and enjoyment of artistic heritage and their legal implications, on which basis a database of contemporary art collections in Milan has been developed and translated into maps and eventually compared with the cultural urban fabric of the city. The analysis highlights the inconsistency of the maps that reflect a social loss, being the life of residents and the local economy detached from the contemporary art offer. The article explores the features of this dilemma, proposes a possible strategic outcome, and suggests guidelines for municipal action aimed at supporting its material realization and facilitating a more equilibrated presence of works of art, projects, and actions within the metropolitan framework.

A tapestry transferred by the National Centre for Monuments and Museums (MMOK) to the Museum of Applied Arts was inventoried in the museum collection in 1952. It shows a central female figure and a few more female figures behind under a columnal hall. Emőke László’s research has revealed that it is a 17th century re-weaving of a Renaissance tapestry (she was the head of the Textile Collection of the Museum of Applied Arts in Budapest). The original series of tapestries depicting the story of Psyché was woven in Brussels for King Francis I of France. Our tapestry is a detail of one of the pieces in the series. The provenance of this piece is a source of both conjecture and doubt. Both in his manuscript on his Hungarian fellow collectors and in a letter written on 22 January 1949, Antal Géber (art collector) mentioned that Hugó Kónyi, a banker, owned a tapestry depicting the story of Psyché, which, according to the laconic description, could be identified with the piece in the inventory. In 1949, the State Protection Authority (secret police) had it removed from the last Hungarian residence of Hugó Kónyi and his wife, the first-floor apartment at 3 Vigadó Square in Budapest, in two lorries, together with other excellent works of art, after the couple had left the country with valid passports in 1947 and Miklós Halmi, who was living in the apartment, had defected. (The Kónyis settled in Lausanne and died there.) No other documents, inventories or photographs are known to date that would provide a more detailed description of this tapestry or of their artworks in general. In the 1920s and 1930s, Hugó Kónyi housed his collection in the villa at 36 Szemlőhegy Street, in Budapest’s Rózsadomb neighbourhood. His main treasures were his sculptures and Flemish paintings, along with a wide variety of decorative arts: Renaissance and Baroque furniture, silverware, carpets, tapestries and faience. Kónyi hardly lent artworks for exhibitions. The main items of the collection are only known from the list of losses after the Second World War, with rather brief designations, which Antal Géber compiled from memory as an annex to the above-mentioned letter. Of course, the identification of the tapestry cannot be proven 100% based on this. A few of Kónyi’s works of art are in public collections. Among them, the so-called Madonna of Cserény (Čerín, Slovakia) stands out, as well as the painting previously attributed to Abraham Janssens the Elder (Diana reveals Callisto’s pregnancy). Perhaps this tapestry fits into that line, with – hopefully – some more works of art about which we don’t know (yet).

József Csetényi (1875–1956) was a student of humanities at the Royal Hungarian University of Sciences in Budapest, later he became a journalist, working for several newspapers. He published several books on economics and politics and was a member of the Bajcsy-Zsilinszky Table Society from the late 1920s. In addition to his public activities, he was also an important art collector, although not many people knew it at the time. There is little information about what he bought and where. His collection consisted mainly of European Renaissance and Baroque paintings. Archival interior photographs show the works in the villa of Csetényi and his wife Erzsébet Frisch in Buda (1935), but not everything is included, and the collection may have been enlarged later. In 1944, the Government Commission on Jewish Matters confiscated some of the collection and transferred it to the Museum of Fine Arts. After the war, the family regained ownership, but the entire collection was eventually dispersed (important works were transferred to the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts). In addition to archival photographs, it is mainly archival sources that allow the reconstruction of the former collection.

The growing use of 3D technologies in the cultural heritage sector has raised important questions about striking the right balance between making information accessible for dissemination and ensuring its reliability for documentation purposes. Although digital models are now routinely produced and published across museums and research institutions, their processing often involves undocumented interventions, particularly when addressing missing or incomplete data arising from acquisition constraints. This lack of transparency could undermine the scientific value of 3D assets and limit their reusability. This paper presents a methodological pipeline, developed within the CHANGES project (Spoke 4: Virtual Technologies for Museums and Art Collections), which aims to align 3D digitisation practices with the FAIR principles of findability, accessibility, interoperability and reusability. The pipeline was tested on the large-scale digitisation of over 380 objects from the Aldrovandi exhibition and the Giovanni Capellini Geological Museum at the University of Bologna. It introduces a structured workflow that preserves and documents each version of the 3D model derived from the raw acquisition data. To address the aforementioned critical issue of transparency, the Vertex Colour Map methodology is proposed, which visualises operator interventions directly on the geometry. By embedding paradata in the geometry of the 3D model as a semantic layer, this approach enables users to distinguish between regions acquired faithfully and portions that have been reconstructed, thereby ensuring an informed interpretation of the model. Three case studies demonstrate the effectiveness of this method in documenting uncertainty and enhancing accountability in the modelling process. The results show that incorporating systematic paradata visualisation within FAIR-aligned workflows establishes a sustainable framework for the 3D digitisation of Cultural Heritage, enabling models to be used as tools for dissemination, research and long-term preservation simultaneously.

This study identified distinct types of art collectors in South Korea through a motivation-based segmentation approach using data from an online survey of 808 collectors. Four segments emerged: those driven primarily by visual pleasure (Cluster 1), financial value (Cluster 2), practical functions (Cluster 3), and multiple combined values (Cluster 4). Drawing on subjective indicators informed by Self-Determination Theory alongside behavioral measures, the study examines each segment’s developmental potential and vulnerabilities and offers associated theoretical and practical implications. Finally, as younger collectors are becoming more visible in the market, the findings situate them within this segmentation framework and reflect evolving patterns of art-collecting behavior.

This study conceptualizes the life cycle of art collectors not as a simple progression of purchasing experience but as a set of experiential phases shaped by changing core tasks and constraints. To examine this process, the study employs an explanatory sequential mixed-methods design combining survey data from 408 art buyers collected in 2025 with in-depth interviews. The survey analysis reveals a relatively strong positive correlation between purchase experience and total acquisition volume (ρ=.624, p<.001), whereas the correlation with resale volume is comparatively weaker (ρ=.300, p<.001). These results suggest that the expansion of collections is closely associated with the accumulation of time, while adjustment and transfer practices such as resale are shaped by more complex conditions. The interview analysis shows that the life cycle of art collectors can be structured into four phases—entry, growth, maintenance and adjustment, and disposal and transfer. Based on these findings, this study proposes a ‘Life Cycle Model of Art Collectors’. Transitions between phases are shaped by the combined influence of life events, spatial and resource constraints, market and institutional conditions, and learning and network formation. By interpreting art collecting not as the accumulation of purchasing experience but as a life-cycle-based structure of practice, this study provides an analytical framework for understanding the long-term behavior of art market participants and offers policy and practical implications for the qualitative development of the art market and the design of exit strategies.

In postwar Peru, the censorship of artwork addressing memories of the war remains a persistent reality, ranging from silencing to the application of the Law of Defense of Terrorism, and further intensified through terruqueo —a stigmatizing practice used by conservative politicians to label dissenting voices as terrorists. Drawing on the 2017 accusation of alleged “defense of terrorism” against the art collection Piraq Causa (Who Is Still to Blame?), I argue that censorship extended beyond terruqueo to include the very strategies employed in the artists’ defense—what I term desterruqueo —which themselves enacted forms of silencing. These acts of censorship were shaped by the privileging of specific discourses: the historical reductionism that cast Andean peasants as passive victims caught in the crossfire between the Shining Path and the armed forces, and the recognition of Sarhua art as both intangible cultural heritage and contemporary art. As a result, these dynamics inadvertently fostered self-censorship, constraining more nuanced representations of the war and contributing to the depoliticization of Piraq Causa . Interestingly, the recent work of contemporary Sarhua artists demonstrates that their art continues to serve as a platform for social denunciation and collective action that resists depoliticization.

This study analyzes the history of the development of the oil painting art market in contemporary China, examines the structure and features of the existing art market, as well as analyzes the problems occurring in the process of its formation. The aim of the article is to reveal the stages of development of the main subjects (artists, collectors, art consultants) and institutions (art galleries, auction houses, exhibition spaces, museums) of the oil painting art market in China, which, interacting with each other, create, circulate, and consume art. The objectives of the article are to first consider the approaches to studying this phenomenon and then the stages of the formation of the Chinese auction market, to uncover the role of art galleries and art exhibitions in shaping and developing the structure of the modern Chinese art market. The specificity of the research determined the need for a systematic approach, as the painting art market in China is considered as a complex and multifaceted socio-cultural phenomenon. The novelty of the research lies in the fact that it identifies the features of the functioning of the painting market in China at present, as well as noting that the traditions of art collecting during this period of the country's cultural development are only being formed due to economic stabilization and the emergence of a number of institutions. In addition, the main problems are identified, and prospects for their resolution are outlined. As a result, the article discusses three stages of the formation of the Chinese auction market, four stages of the establishment of art galleries, and stages of development of exhibitions showcasing oil paintings, including national ones. In conclusion, as a way to address the existing problems, the necessity of continuously enhancing the competency level of collectors specializing in contemporary Chinese artists' works is indicated.

This study, in anticipation of the 80th anniversary of the T. Shevchenko Library and Archive in London, aims to highlight the key motivations behind its creation, trace the development and activities of the institution, and examine the evolution of its collection. The research is based on archival documents from the Association of Ukrainians in Great Britain (AUGB) and periodicals from the mid-20th century. Despite its historical significance, this topic has not been thoroughly explored and remains underrepresented in Ukrainian historiography. Methodology. The article employs a detailed analysis of primary documentary sources to offer direct evidence on the subject. It synthesizes and generalizes information obtained from various archives and sources. The scientific significance and novelty of this work lie in its historiographical contribution. For the first time, it reviews and clarifies the documentary history of the Shevchenko Library’s creation, activities, and development up to the present. Key sources from the AUGB archive in London are introduced into scientific circulation, reflecting pivotal events and individuals who influenced the institution’s work. Notably, the documents of the Shevchenko Jubilee Committee, established in 1960, are also analysed, shedding light on the institution’s operations over the years. Conclusions. This research provides, for the first time, a comprehensive account of the creation of a Ukrainian library in London and its ongoing activities in exile for nearly 80 years. What began as a modest reading room in 1945 has evolved into one of the largest Ukrainian emigration libraries in Europe. Its collection encompasses rare and invaluable emigration publications, 20th-century periodicals from the West, old printed works, a unique archival collection, and an art collection that continues to generate significant interest among Ukrainian historians, archivists, and museum professionals.

This article examines the practice of connoisseurship as articulated by Bernard Berenson (1865–1959) and its reception in the South American art world, with particular attention to Brazil. Drawing on dispersed archival materials, Berenson’s social networks across Europe and the Americas, the provenance of works in the collection of the São Paulo Museum of Art (MASP), and the circulation of his translated writings in Argentina and Brazil, we reconstruct his role—together with local intermediaries—in shaping collections of traditional European art. The article also reflects on the continued presence of connoisseurship in today’s art system and its paradoxical relationship with the technical and scientific analyses that expanded throughout the twentieth century and substantially advanced the material study of artworks.

Nayda Collazo-Llorens is a recognized Puerto Rican artist whose works have been included in several art collections in Puerto Rico and the US. Even if already commented on, her oeuvre warrants and deserves a more in-depth study that pays attention to her conceptu- al operations and experimentation. Inspired by the artist’s reflection on the archipelago, this article is a product of my ongoing research on her body of work. I identify and discuss two sea currents that run across, nurture, and guide the artist’s queer relational abstraction between the years 2008 and 2020, and the formal, contextual, and conceptual exploration and operations with the triangle and grid as conceptual devices for queering cartography. I propose that it is an abstraction and queering that simplifies, mixes, complicates, fragments, interferes, expands, drags, invaginates, multiplies, and deploys an architectonic multi-folding, enacting an archipelagic epistemology to account for the changing territories of diasporic life and a decolonial cartography of navigation.

Material survey in the modern and contemporary collections of Slovak National Gallery using non-destructive techniques of infrared spectroscopy.

The dossier discusses Senegalese artistic expressions that emerged from the city of Dakar or in dialogue with it, highlighting connections, contradictions, disputes, movements, and interregional reinventions. It brings together contributions from the 1st International Seminar Affluences dans les arts depuis Dakar, with a focus on the integration of local and external legacies, exchanges between African artists and institutions, and the influence of Senegalese creative production in Brazil, France, and beyond. It analyzes the role of cultural dynamics, collections, festivals, exhibitions, and curatorial practices in shaping art and museums, as well as the relevance of the 2023 and 2025 São Paulo Biennials for contemporary African presence, with particular emphasis on Senegalese participation. The dossier also discusses the centrality of Dakar as a hub of artistic production and circulation, highlighting the role of Léopold Sédar Senghor in consolidating debates on Negritude, Pan-Africanism, and the independence of former French colonies. It further addresses the impact of journals and festivals, such as the World Festival of Black Arts and the Pan-African Festival of Algiers. The processes of collecting, circulation, and commodification of African art are examined, as well as the creation of the Agit’art collective, which opposed official cultural policy. The text also highlights contemporary forms of resistance and critique, such as the RBS Crew collective, and the innovative role of artists (Dior Thiam, Alioune Diagne), curators (Koyo Kouoh), and choreographers (Germaine Acogny) in Senegalese and African arts. Finally, it underscores the vitality of the Senegalese presence at the São Paulo Biennials and the displacement of centers of production, circulation, and critique of African art, pointing to current epistemic challenges and transformations.

Objective. Digital collections of artistic direction are of great value to society from cultural, social and economic points of view. The article aims to study the existing digital art collections created by libraries of higher education institutions, to analyse the subject matter, structure, assess the scope, accessibility and usability. Methods. The study was conducted on the basis of a content analysis of 5 digital art collections launched by libraries of leading higher education institutions of Ukraine: National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, Ukrainian Catholic University, Scientific Library of Yurii Fedkovych Chernivtsi National University, Kyiv National University of Culture and Arts, Kharkiv State Academy of Design and Arts. Results. A content analysis of digital art collections of libraries of higher education institutions of Ukraine was conducted. Integration into the scientific and educational space of the studied collections occurs mainly through their use in the educational process and research practices, which allows us to state that the potential of the studied resources remains only partially realized. Conclusions. It was found that digital art collections are currently presented in a rather fragmentary manner within the framework of local digital projects of individual higher education institutions. The main problematic aspects of the technical, technological and organizational implementation of digital art collections were identified. Directions for their development were proposed.