THE HISTORY OF PRIVATE COLLECTING IN RUSSIA IN THE CONTEXT OF THE FORMATION OF MUSEUM COLLECTIONS
Authors:   Central Russian Institute of Management, Branch of RANEPA, LIVTSOV V.A. , CHETVERIKOVA A.S. ,   Central Russian Institute of Management, Branch of RANEPA
Published: December 2024

The purpose of the study is to determine the importance of private collecting in Russia for creating a museum network, to identify the features of collecting in the province and the associated formation of collections of museums and galleries from the seventeenth to the first decades of the twentieth century. The author focuses on the problem of understanding the experience of preserving artistic (historical) heritage in private collections of people. The relevance of the study is caused by the lack of systematic data on the principles of acquisition of provincial museums, the importance of private collections in this process. Special attention is paid to the history of the emergence of art collections on the example of the Orel museums.
Tracing the direct relationship between the activities of collectors and the emergence of museums became possible through the use of the historical and phenomenological method, which allowed us to reveal the connection between the processes of collecting personal collections of works of art and the formation of art galleries based on them. Chronological and diachronic analysis helped to identify the prerequisites that led to the study of the main directions of the development of private collecting. The historical and comparative method, based on comparing the features of private collecting with the formation of museum collections, allowed us to identify the specifics of the system of replenishment and acquisition of museum collections of works of art and private collecting at different historical stages.
The authors have identified key trends and directions of private collecting in Russia from the seventeenth to the first decades of the twentieth century. Based on the results of the historiographical analysis, the regional specifics of the organization of the preservation of artistic heritage are shown. With the emergence of new directions of training specialists in the museum field by educational institutions, the topic of private collecting becomes a format of textbooks, but the issues of private collecting in the Russian province, especially the formation of collections of provincial museums, are still waiting for their research.
The results obtained in the course of the study will become the basis for further analysis of the prospects for replenishing the collections of museums and galleries. Generalizations and conclusions can be applied in the development of models for improving the acquisition of provincial museums, where private collections are of particular importance in this process.
The result of the study was an analysis of the activities of private collectors of the late XIX – early XX centuries, which allows us to talk about the identity of the process of the emergence of most provincial museums, caused by increased public attention to the need to create such institutions locally, as well as the spread of the trend of patronage. The studied history of the formation of the Orel art gallery (later Orel Museum of Fine Arts, OMFA), typical for the Central Museums of Russia, simultaneously reveals new names of collectors and their collections.