The effect of change. The biographies of The Paul and Dora Janssen-Arts Collection and The Barbier-Mueller Pre-Columbian Collection

In this thesis the biographies of The Paul and Dora Janssen-Arts Collection and The Barbier-Mueller Pre-Columbian Collection have been described and researched. Through this research it was possible to discover the different contexts the objects were in and how they ended up in these contexts. This has been done by the use of the Reinwardt-Model. This model is a way to look at objects in the physical way, the function and the context. As in this research the context of the collections was the most important, the way of writing down the contexts as the Reinwardt-Model describes has been used to find where significant changes in the lives of the collections could be found. The aim of this research was to show that changing circumstances within collections have effects on the collections, the objects and the way people look at them. It was meant to give an easy way to write down the biography of a collection and in this way be able to figure out where the most specific changes in the...Show moreIn this thesis the biographies of The Paul and Dora Janssen-Arts Collection and The Barbier-Mueller Pre-Columbian Collection have been described and researched. Through this research it was possible to discover the different contexts the objects were in and how they ended up in these contexts. This has been done by the use of the Reinwardt-Model. This model is a way to look at objects in the physical way, the function and the context. As in this research the context of the collections was the most important, the way of writing down the contexts as the Reinwardt-Model describes has been used to find where significant changes in the lives of the collections could be found. The aim of this research was to show that changing circumstances within collections have effects on the collections, the objects and the way people look at them. It was meant to give an easy way to write down the biography of a collection and in this way be able to figure out where the most specific changes in the life of an object can be found. The Paul and Dora Janssen Arts collection consists of more than 400 Pre-Columbian objects that were acquired by Dora Janssen. After the death of her husband the collection was used as inheritance tax and ended up in the Museum aan de Stroom in Antwerp. This is considered to be the most important change in the life of this collection as it went from private to public, but it also triggered more museum who would have liked to have the collection and countries where the provenience of the objects can be found, who would have liked to have their objects back. The Barbier-Mueller Pre-Columbian Collection was established by Josef Mueller and augmented by his son-in-law Jean Paul Barbier. After it was exhibited in its own museum in Barcelona the collection was auctioned by Sotheby’s. This change in the life of the collection caused a commotion with countries where the provenience of objects could be found, who claimed that the objects were illegally removed from the country and should be given back. During the auction many objects failed to sell or were sold for less than anticipated. Specific effects of the significant changes in the lives of these collections are the way people started to look at them, if they belonged in the country of origin or not. It even could have caused the lack of sales with The Barbier-Mueller Collection. Show less

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The effect of change. The biographies of The Paul and Dora Janssen-Arts Collection and The Barbier-Mueller Pre-Columbian Collection