Li Yang

Date of Award

2026

Document Type

Thesis - Open Access

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

Art Business

First Advisor

Xu Yingqing

Abstract

This thesis traces the historical evolution of private art collecting from its origins in antiquity to the emergence of the modern private museum and the rise of digital collecting in the twenty-first century. Through a comparative and historical framework, it examines how the act of collecting—once a symbol of power, devotion, and erudition— gradually transformed into a form of public engagement and cultural authorship. Beginning with the sacred collections of ancient Egypt, Greece, Rome, and China, the study explores how early collectors used art to assert identity, spirituality, and social hierarchy. The Renaissance redefined collecting through humanist ideals of knowledge and beauty, while the Enlightenment expanded its civic and educational dimensions. The nineteenth century witnessed the bourgeois collector’s moralization of taste, turning private accumulation into social virtue and institutional philanthropy. The twentieth century marked a decisive shift: collectors such as Gertrude Stein, Albert Barnes, and Peggy Guggenheim became tastemakers who shaped modern art’s narrative. Their legacy continues in today’s global landscape, where figures like François Pinault, Eli Broad, and Wang Wei transform private collections into museums that function as both cultural and economic enterprises. Finally, the thesis addresses the challenges and opportunities posed by digital collecting and NFTs, arguing that while the medium has changed, the human impulse to collect— to preserve meaning, identity, and value—remains constant. Ultimately, the study reveals collecting as a mirror of civilization’s evolving relationship with art, power, and the public sphere. Methodologically, the thesis triangulates close visual analysis with archival sources, museum records, and market data to track how objects migrate from private ownership to public custody. It makes three interventions: first, it reframes the long history of collecting as a shifting negotiation between self-fashioning and social obligation; second, it clarifies how private museums translate individual taste into institutional narratives that shape canons; third, it situates digital assets within this same continuum of legitimation and display. Attending to regional differences and legal-economic infrastructures, the study proposes a typology of collector-museums and offers criteria for evaluating their public value, transparency, and sustainability.

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