Art Market Monitor

Global Coverage ~ Unique Analysis

  • AMMpro
  • AMM Fantasy Collecting Game
  • Podcast
  • Contact Us

Poland’s Richest Woman Goes Private After City Rejects Public Museum

March 11, 2014 by Marion Maneker

Grazyna Kulczyk

Grazyna Kulczyk, Poland’s richest woman, believes in art and wants to build a museum that will feature Polish artists among others. But her home town of Poznan doesn’t have the budget to maintain the institution. This story explains, in part, the continuing privatization of museums:

A big disappointment, however, was her ambitious plan to build an art museum in the park surrounding the brewery. “I went to Osaka to meet Tadao Ando; I saw some other of his buildings in Japan – for instance Naoshima,” she says. “It was like a dream. Tadao came to Poznan, he wanted to design a building completely underground, going down 12 or 13 metres, with a Turrell room . . . but when I presented the project to the local authorities, they said they had no money for it: I would have paid for the building and the collection, but I wanted them to pay for the upkeep, to make it sustainable in the future.”

The result is that the museum will not happen; Kulczyk has now bought another brewery, this time in Switzerland, close to St Moritz. “I plan to show Polish artists there,” she says.

She is also on the acquisition committee at Tate for Russian and eastern European art, but one senses that Polish artists are particularly close to her heart. “I see myself as an ambassador for contemporary Polish art,” she says. I ask her if she thinks of the collection as an investment. “Of course!” she replies. “It’s an investment, but it is not for sale; it’s for the Polish people.”

Grazyna Kulczyk’s collection on show at Boadilla del Monte, Madrid (Financial Times)

More from Art Market Monitor

  • Voices of ARCOVoices of ARCO
  • Today in Damien Hirst: The Buyer StatsToday in Damien Hirst: The Buyer Stats
  • Indian Homes Have $1B in Old ArtIndian Homes Have $1B in Old Art
  • Let Them Eat, Poori.Let Them Eat, Poori.
  • Phillips to Sell Brandt Collection in LondonPhillips to Sell Brandt Collection in London
  • The Story of 200 $1 BillsThe Story of 200 $1 Bills

Filed Under: Collectors

About Marion Maneker

Want to get Art Market Monitor‘s posts sent to you in our email? Sign up below by clicking on the Subscribe button.

Top Posts

  • Keith Haring’s 1989 Retrospect Comes to Sotheby’s London Prints Sale
  • Restituted Van Gogh Portrait from London Collection to Sell at Christie’s
  • Four of Picasso's Women Valued at $28m Come to Christie's from Rose-Walters Collection
  • Norman Rockwell's Not Gay. But Is He a Great Artist?
  • Tony Podesta's Secret Art Buying
  • Christie’s to Sell Its First Fully Digital Work of Art in Test of Emerging Market
  • Roy Lichtenstein’s Top Ten Auction Prices
  • Tracey Emin Neon Lights Up Sotheby's 'Contemporary Showcase' Pop-Up
  • Sotheby's Pulls in a $9m David Hockney for November
  • How to Chant Like an Auctioneer
  • About Us/ Contact
  • Podcast
  • AMMpro
  • Newsletter
  • FAQ

twitterfacebooksoundcloud
Privacy Policy
Terms & Conditions
California Privacy Rights
Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Advertise on Art Market Monitor