The top countries as ranked by number of private art museums are Germany, the United States, and South Korea, followed by Greater China and Italy.
LARRY’S LIST is proud to announce the release of the second edition of the PRIVATE ART MUSEUM REPORT. The report provides a systematic exploration of the global landscape of privately founded contemporary art museums with analyses by continent, country, and city. It gives an overview of museums that have opened over the past years and provides an understanding of their legal setup and operations. A deep-dive chapter explores the social media activities of the museums.
Key findings
- To date there are 446 privately founded contemporary art museums in the world.
- The top countries as ranked by number of private museums are Germany (60), the United States (59), and South Korea (50), followed by Greater China (30) and Italy (30).
- The South Korean capital, Seoul, leads the city ranking with 17 museums, closely followed by Berlin with 14, Beijing with 11, New York with 10, and Athens with nine.
- 82% of all existing private museums were founded since 2000, among which 152 have been established globally within the last decade.
- Nine out of 10 (88%) private art museums have an Instagram account.
Hong Kong, May 2023 – “The private art museum landscape continues to be dynamic,” states Christoph Noe, director and co-founder of LARRY’S LIST. Since 2016, over 110 museums have opened worldwide. The Feuerle Collection in Berlin, Longlati Foundation in Shanghai, and Peter Marino Foundation in Southampton, USA are some great examples of this development. Particularly, Asia is a fascinating area for observing private museums, with Seoul leading the global city ranking in regard to number of private art museums. For that reason, the report contains a deep dive into the South Korean art scene including an interview with Ahn, Young Joo, director of Museum SAN, located in Oak Valley in the mountains of Wonju.
Publishing a number of reports in the past, including The Art Collector Instagram Attention Report (2022), LARRY’S LIST continues to highlight social media as a highly relevant topic in the art world, including for private art museums. Project leader for LARRY’S LIST, Jamie Bennett, explains, “Private art museums are making their marks on Instagram, reaching out to new and established audiences, and cultivating cultural clout through the platform.”
The report is based on LARRY’S LIST’s extensive database of contemporary art collectors and private art museums from around the world, as well as ongoing global research by a research team from the University of Amsterdam’s Department of Sociology. “We are very pleased with this fruitful collaboration with Prof. Olav Velthuis and his team, allowing us to again provide a report with valuable insights into the changing private art museum scene, and to continue to highlight the founders’ contributions to society,” comments Christoph Noe.
PRIVATE ART MUSEUM REPORT 2023
Edited by LARRY’S LIST Ltd.
Verlag für Moderne Kunst, Vienna
English, softcover, 56 pages
ISBN 978-3-99153-026-8
Publication date: June 2023
Price: Euro 38 (hardcopy)
Price: Free — digital copy available until 30 June 2023, download here
Distributed via
Europe: LKG, www.lkg-va.de
UK: Cornerhouse Publications, www.cornerhousepublications.org
USA: D.A.P., www.artbook.com
This press release is also available in Chinese, Korean, Italian and German language. Press kits and images for download are available here.
The project website of the Department of Sociology of the University of Amsterdam, including an interactive map of private museums worldwide, can be accessed via https://privatemuseumresearch.org/
For further information, please contact:
Mrs. Jamie Bennett, Project Leader, LARRY’S LIST, jamie@larryslist.com
Prof. Olav Velthuis, University of Amsterdam, info@privatemuseumresearch.org
Mrs. Silvia Jaklitsch, Modern Arts Publishing, hello@vfmk.org
