An interesting piece in The Economist on a visit to the Museu Calouste Gulbenkian in Lisbon,

…I admired many of the objects contained within the museum, but felt oddly oppressed.

Unexpectedly, a vision from “The Great Gatsby” sprang to mind, when Gatsby begins throwing heaped up shirts on his bed in a moment of mania: dozens and dozens of the finest shirts sent out each season by his man in England. Or the packing cases full of treasures arriving for Citizen Kane. I felt like I was in the presence of something almost compulsive. I could picture dealers coming across some unusually fine treasure and reserving it for the interest of Mr Gulbenkian, a gleam of greed in their eyes. But perhaps I am being very unfair. Perhaps such great collections cannot be separated from the need for an avid, wealthy collector behind them: that edge of mania is part of their legacy.

Tags: Art Museums, Museu Calouste Gulbenkian

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