The folks at Larry’s List have created a report on the growth of private museums around the world. They identify 317 museums created by private individuals who predominate in South Korea, German, the US, China and Italy. More than a a third of these museums have more than 20,000 visitors a year.
The report has a fair amount of detail on the funding, operation and design of private museums. For the broader market, though, the most valuable piece of information may be the list of top artists collected. Private museums clearly generate demand in the art market. The list, above, is dominated by Andy Warhol whose work appears in 15% of the collections of private museums. He’s followed by the surprising name of Anselm Kiefer, a highly respected artist but hardly a market star. His countryman and market titan, Gerhard Richter, comes in third. Damien Hirst follows clearly having achieved his place on this list in the years preceding his market fade.
Pablo Picasso has only a slight edge of John Baldessari on the private museum list. With Cindy Sherman, Olafur Eliasson, Donald Judd and Sol LeWitt rounding out the top ten places.
Private Art Museum Report (Larry’s List)
