Nascita e sviluppo del museo d'arte in Cina

The museum devoted only to art is a relatively novel concept in China, nevertheless, in the last few years, thousands of contemporary art museums have flourished all over the country. This phenomenon follows a more general ongoing renovation process which encompasses the entirety of the national art institution system, which began in the 1990s. Today, this sector is facing different challenges and the institution of the museum itself is searching for its own identity. This article aims at analysing the birth and development of art museum in China in the last thirty years, and in particular will focus on some relevant aspects: the birth of the private collections, the museum fever which has spread after the 2000 year, and the phenomenon of “hyper-consumerism” which is characterizing contemporary art museums system today. The article will also examine some “for-profit” institutions, managed more like cultural industries than cultural institutions and will highlight some characteristic common to many contemporary art museums in mainland China. All these aspects reveal a strong contradiction with the primary mission of the museum, which is to research, collect, display works of art and preserve them for future generations.