SYMPOSIUM – THE PUBLIC ROLE OF PRIVATE COLLECTIONS

SYMPOSIUM
THE PUBLIC ROLE OF PRIVATE COLLECTIONS
Saturday, 20 November 2021

On the exhibition
ADAM, EVE AND THE SERPENT
Works from the Schenkung Sammlung Hoffmann
until 13 February 2022 in Bonn

The symposium explores the public role of private collections. It takes its starting point in the 2018 donation of the Hoffmann Collection to the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden. A selection of some 150 works from this generous gift is now on show at the Bundeskunsthalle in the exhibition Adam, Eve and the Serpent.

In a series of panel discussions, we will talk about the – sometimes controversial – attitudes, models, structures and options of private collections and museum collections. The focus will be on the possible synergies, but also on the obstacles and problems that are a function of the complexity of the two seemingly opposing structures. Does a private collection have a different mission than a public one? Can it be an adequate partner for institutions, fill a cultural gap, complement them, or do they operate in competition with each other? Do private collectors enjoy a different leeway as soon as they enter the public sphere? How do Public-Private Partnerships work in different constellations, and what are the advantages and disadvantages of such co-operations?

Part of the Studio Bonn discourse format, the symposium will conclude by exploring the contentious question of who (really) owns art and how cultural values come into being, how they change in line with social developments, for whom they are intended and in what form. The question of whether collecting, the ‘amassing’ of art treasures, is still in keeping with the times will also be discussed.