For many collectors, one of the thrills of collecting art is to share their works with others. Shanghai-based collector Zheng Hao puts it well when he says that, "to own a private collection is personal joy, to show a private collection is shared joy".
The pleasure may come in varying degrees from a sense of self-actualisation, the social capital attached to status and the sheer joy of sharing treasured pieces with others.
The enormous reach of the internet has offered collectors a wonderful and cost-effective way to share their artworks with a broader audience. Several online platforms are dedicated to showcasing privately owned art.
Independent Collectors, a community for collectors of contemporary art, was launched in 2008 to allow its members to exhibit their collections online. It is open to all art collectors and it is free.
With the success of social media, it is not surprising to see collectors making use of the photo-sharing application Instagram to show their art.
A number of famous collectors, such as Dasha Zhukova, who is married to Roman Abramovich and who founded the Garage Museum in Moscow, have chosen this platform to share their passion.
The ability to show, view and also buy art online has largely benefited art by making it more accessible. It remains true, however, that nothing replaces the experience of seeing art in person.
On a digital screen, the scale of an artwork can be misconstrued, digital colours don’t always match the original ones, important brush strokes may disappear or details in a photographic work can get lost.
And so, to best showcase their artworks several collectors have chosen to establish private museums. A recent study reported there are 317 privately funded museums around the world. Of these, 70% were built after 2000.
Given the cost of building and operating a private museum, this is a sign of a booming economy and a rapid growth in personal wealth.
The top-ranking countries by numbers of private museums are South Korea, the US, Germany, China and Italy. The Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa, which opens next month in Cape Town, will be one of the largest private museums for contemporary art in Africa.
Jochen Zeitz, former CEO of Puma and the man behind the collection, has in previous years established a sculpture garden in Segera, Kenya. There are other plans for private museums in Africa.
Congolese businessman Sindika Dokolo, who owns more than 5,000 artworks, plans to open museums in Angola and Portugal. Prince Yemisi Shyllon, reportedly Nigeria’s largest private collector, also intends to build his own museum.
The satisfaction of seeing a personal collection on display is another motivator for starting a museum. Collectors have better control of the manner in which their artworks are displayed
So, what are the key motivations for collectors to establish a museum? The pleasure of sharing a collection certainly comes first. This sometimes comes with a sense of responsibility too.
As Kirsty Cockerill, director of The New Church Museum in Cape Town, puts it, "generally the most poignant artworks made by our artists are acquired by private collectors nationally and internationally. These works become removed from active cultural and society engagement and the public is then denied the opportunity to see the very best our country and continent produce."
A philanthropic commitment to the arts is a key factor behind the proliferation of privately funded museums. Private museum owners often wish to fill a gap in countries with limited institutional infrastructure or at a time of decreased government funding.
The New Church Museum was founded by collector Piet Viljoen to make contemporary South African and African art accessible to the public.
The satisfaction of seeing a personal collection on display is another motivator for starting a museum. Collectors have better control of the manner in which their artworks are displayed. The worst scenario for a collector is to donate a prized collection to a public museum only for the artworks to be kept in storage.
Another benefit to private museum founders is better access to top artists and top works. Galleries and art dealers are likely to give priority to buyers who have the ability to share their art acquisitions and have them on public display.
However, there are some challenges. Privately funded museums often require vast sums of money to develop and operate. The programme of exhibitions and activities has to be relevant to attract and build audiences and a watertight strategy is needed to achieve sustainability. Private collectors should get professional advice before plunging into what could easily become a bottomless pit of spending.
Several collectors have devised solutions to this conundrum. Sylvain Levy, a collector of Chinese contemporary art, has established a virtual museum, the DSL Collection, accessible to all online.
Filipino developer and collector Robbie Antonio is looking at capitalising on the recent boom in private museums to offer prefabricated exhibition spaces.
He appointed architects Jean Nouvel and Christian de Portzamparc to create what he calls "reproducible museums", designed to display art.
For about $1m, collectors could own their own art museum in as quickly as six months and get closer to what contemporary British artist and collector Damian Hirst famously pronounced: "Buy art, build a museum, put your name on it, let people in for free. That’s as close as you can get to immortality."
• Walker is a partner in Walker Scott, which offers end-to-end art management services.
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