The Rise Of Private Art Museums

In an article for The New Yorker, Ben Mauk examines the rise of the private art ‘museum.’ In the centre of Berlin there sits a ”heavy, grey, and shrapnel-pocked” bunker, designed by Nazi architect Karl Bonatz under the direction of Albert Speer which, in 2003, was transformed into a private gallery. Having been bought by Christian and Karen Boros in order to display a portion of their sizeable collection of contemporary art, the only way for a member of the public to gain admittance is by registering online for a group tour. For Mauk, however, this is not necessarily a bad thing. Read the article in full here.

To visit the collection is therefore to invest in a private fantasy of fabulous wealth and confident tastes. At no point can you forget that the patrons who own this building and everything in it are walking around in their penthouse, just above your head.