Independent Collectors is an online community and editorial platform for contemporary art collectors. Founder Christian Kaspar Schwarm originally launched the site in June 2008. Independent Collectors is said to be the largest online resource of privately owned art and also offers a forum to discuss topics on collecting. Independent Collectors is based in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...

, Germany. '' Die Zeit'' has described the site as a "

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Mosk ...

for

aesthetics Aesthetics, or esthetics, is a branch of philosophy that deals with the nature of beauty and taste, as well as the philosophy of art (its own area of philosophy that comes out of aesthetics). It examines aesthetic values, often expressed t ...

History

Christian Kaspar Schwarm originally came up with the idea based upon his own experiences of collecting contemporary artwork, noting that he was able to get to know gallery owners but not fellow collectors. He then teamed up with Ulrich Grothe and Uwe Thomas to found the website in 2008, to allow for easier communication between collectors. In 2009, the site entered into a partnership with automobile manufacturer BMW, as well as starting a content-based partnership with insurance company Allianz in 2014.

Website

The Independent Collectors website offers a platform to showcase, share and discover contemporary art collections online. In December 2016, the website's collectors community counts more than 5,000 registered members in 97 countries. Members are required to adhere to the ethical code of Independent Collectors stating that they will not use the website for business related purposes. Each member application is individually verified, yet approved users can select to keep their identity anonymous. Since 2008 Independent Collectors cooperates with various art fairs and institutions such as

Art Basel Art Basel is a for-profit, privately owned and managed, international art fair staged annually in Basel, Switzerland; Miami Beach; Hong Kong and from 2022, Paris. Art Basel works in collaboration with the host city's local institutions to help ...

Frieze Art Fair Frieze Art Fair is an international contemporary art fair in London, New York, and Los Angeles. Frieze London takes place every October in London's Regent's Park. In the US, the fair ran on New York's Randall's Island from 2012–19 and in 2 ...

, FIAC,

The Armory Show The Armory Show is an international art fair in New York City, known as New York's Art Fair. Established in 1994 as the Gramercy International Art Fair by dealers Colin De Land, Pat Hearn, Lisa Spellman, Matthew Marks and Paul Morris, the annua ...

and Frankfurter Allgemeine Forum conference, among others. Registered community members benefit from special offers such as VIP tickets, private tours and selected publications. After a relaunch in early 2015, Independent Collectors complemented its closed community area with an open, publicly accessible editorial program on collecting. The website now incorporates a diverse program focused on online exhibitions and interviews, offering an insight into the culture of contemporary collecting.

BMW Art Guide by Independent Collectors

In 2012, Independent Collectors and BMW created the ''BMW Art Guide by Independent Collectors'', an Art Guide then featuring 173 private but publicly accessible collections of contemporary art from around the world. The first edition of the book was presented during

. Next to listing the visitor information and descriptions of the respective collections, the publication features short essays concerning contemporary aspects of collecting art. In October 2016, the fourth extended version of the Art Guide was published by Hatje Cantz., title=Öffentliche Privatsache= Florian Zobl p.28 - 29., date=24. November 2013, The book was launched during Frieze Art Fair London and includes 256 private art collections from 43 countries "featuring large and small, famous and the relatively unknown".HYPERALLERGIC: The Fourth BMW Art Guide by Independent Collectors
/ref> The fourth ''BMW Art Guide by Independent Collectors'' is published in print and digitally as an eBook and is available in English and German. Featured collections include, among others: Museum of Old and New Art (MONA), White Rabbit – Contemporary Chinese Art Collection,

Lyon Housemuseum The Lyon Housemuseum is a hybrid residence and contemporary art museum located on Cotham Road, Kew, a suburb of Melbourne, Australia. The Housemuseum displays the Lyon Collection of Australian contemporary art in a purpose designed building. The ...

, Maison Particulière, Vanhaerents Art Collection, Herbert Foundation, Verbeke Foundation, Inhotim – Instituto de Arte Contemporânea & Jardim Botânico, Rennie Collection at Wing Sang, M Woods, Collection Lambert,

La Maison Rouge La Maison Rouge was a private contemporary art Foundation dedicated mainly to showing private art collections, monographic shows of contemporary artists' work. It was located close to the Bastille, in Paris, at 10 Boulevard de la Bastille in the 12 ...

Museum Frieder Burda A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make thes ...

, Sammlung Boros and Sammlung Hoffmann. Since 2013, the publication is accompanied by the''BMW Art Guide Blog''. As a place for additional content, the blog focuses on collection visits, personal interviews with collectors from around the world and offers further background information and insights into art world related topics.

Allianz Kunst Kolleg

In collaboration with Allianz Independent Collectors initiated the ''Kunst Kolleg'' in 2014. The ''Allianz Kunst Kolleg'' is a series of expert written articles that gather useful information for managing a collection. The topics discussed include art donation, conservation and transport, as well as art market related subjects such as art advisory, digitization and art flipping, among others. All twelve articles are written by art journalists and compiled as a downloadable eReader. Published in 2016, the ''Allianz Kunst Kolleg'' is currently available in German.

References

External links

Independent Collectors Official Website

BMW Art Guide Blog Official Website

BMW Art Guide by Independent Collectors on Vimeo

BMW Art Expedition Berlin on Vimeo

Allianz Kunst Kolleg eReader

* ttp://www.art-magazin.de/kunst/12729/radar_christian_schwarm Christian Schwarms Collection {{DEFAULTSORT:Independent Collectors Art societies German social networking websites