La Colección Masaveu y la Fundación María Cristina Masaveu PetersonGénesis, desarrollo, actualidad y modelo institucional de una colección privada de arte del siglo XIX al siglo XXI

Resum

The focus of this thesis is to study the Masaveu Art Collection since its creation up until 2010, based on the initial hypothesis that this is a peculiar collection, as it neither fits into the family collector’s model nor tallies with corporate collecting, strictly speaking. Instead, it ventures beyond both models to take its place in what we have labelled «institutional collecting». We will be studying this characteristic throughout the thesis, together with its cultural and legal consequences. This is one of the most outstanding private Spanish collections and also one of the oldest, seeing as the earliest acquisitions date from the 1930s.The collection started from scratch during those years, with no public or aristocratic legacy to precede it. It was, however, spurred by the social context of an illustrated and cultured provincial bourgeoisie of Catalan origin which had settled in the region of Asturias in the mid-nineteenth century. The Masaveu family not only succeeded in managing several businesses, but was also able to transform its devotion for art from an early stage of trade and cultural dissemination —having, in fact, created one of the first art galleries in existence in Spain— into a form of collecting that was, for a long time, more focussed on the ancient work of primitive artists and of the classical Spanish Renaissance and Baroque school, although open to works of art from European schools of Flemish rather than Italian roots...