Museums shape our perception of history and culture. In order to understand object accessions and the composition of museum collections, it is necessary to analyse the collectors from whom the objects were acquired. What were their interests and motivations? What understanding of art and collectable objects still shapes our understanding of culture today? Two influential museums, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York (Met) and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London (V&A), were selected as examples from the large number of museums and museum objects. We were able to determine donation trends and structures as well as donors central to the network. We also identified gaps for further research, especially in the field of biographical and provenance research.
Brixy et al. (Thu,) studied this question.