Art collecting: passion, investment and much more

Art consultants Thea Westreich Wagner and Ethan Wagner, drawing on their extensive experience gathered over years of working with collectors and art institutions, offer through ten thematic chapters an insightful yet layman's insight into the sometimes somewhat mysterious world of collecting contemporary art.

Collecting Art: The Passion, the Investment, and More answers the questions of what is so fascinating about collecting and what this passion brings to collectors emotionally, intellectually, and socially. The authors state that buying works of art and building a collection are - unlike buying anything else - motivated by any combination of such factors as the works' perceived investment potential, their aesthetic value, the collectors' love of art and their competitiveness, the intellectual charge of the work, adrenaline, strengthening the ego or social status or trying to arouse the interest of those around you.

The questions that open each of the chapters are straightforward and simple: they relate to the things we wanted to know about collecting contemporary art but were afraid to ask. The answers are instructive but readable and contain specific examples from the practice of both authors. Each of the questions is accompanied by photographs and supplementary texts that give the reader a glimpse behind the scenes of the world of modern art – exhibitions, depositories, biennials, art fairs, the privacy of collectors – and also offer a key to the interpretation of specific works of art.

The authors are both influential members of the collecting community and perceptive observers of events in this world. Thanks to this, they are able to approximate the historical and social context of the complex world of art collectors. Why people collect art, what it brings them, who can collect art and how to properly build a collection, what are the relationships between commercial and public art galleries and institutions, these are just some of the topics covered in the book Collecting Art: Passion, Investment and devotes much more.