lecture • Warsaw mit space
10/9
19:00
19:00
10/9
19:00
19:00
Six collections that changed the value of art
Collecting has never been simply a love of beautiful things. Over the centuries it has served as an instrument of politics and power, as a financial calculation, as a way of asserting status — and as an appetite for possession.
Behind the great museums, the auction records and the canon of masterpieces stand particular people, with their ambitions, tastes, rivalries and obsessions. Their choices largely determined which objects are considered masterpieces today, and how much we are prepared to pay for them.
The lecture follows the history of collecting through six collections and the people who made them, from antiquity to the present: caesars and shoguns, women collectors, cardinals and emperors, barons and corporations.
It asks why rulers, commanders and bankers gave away fortunes for works of art; how the reputations of artists and objects were formed; why the name of a previous owner can multiply the value of an object; and how private passions, political ambition and financial interest gradually produced the art market.
Tickets
Please note: this event is held in Russian
The lecture is conducted in Russian, without interpretation or subtitles. Keep that in mind before proceeding ti booking.
About the speaker
Alexander Sheremetev is an art historian and researcher specialising in the symbolism, ornament and visual culture of Japan. He has worked with museums for over twenty years, curating private and public collections, developing university courses and advising private projects. He lectures and writes, situating aesthetic form within its historical, philosophical and structural context.
