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Developed at the New Museum’s cultural incubator, Collecteurs is the world’s first collective digital museum: The Museum of Private Collections.
Collecteurs is a home for those who want to keep the art world public. Our mission is to open doors to art, ideas, and stories meant to be shared.
We do this through our five goals—the pillars of what we do and how we do it
1. Anchor ourselves as The Museum of Private Collections (MoPC).Our platform connects 4,000 accessioned collections, 20,000 users, and 45,000+ artworks across 6 continents to empower our community to share the work they see, love, or own—no ticket required.2. Invite dialogue and context with digital exhibitions.Through collaborative exhibitions with curators, institutions, and collectors, Collecteurs functions as a (re)discovery tool seen and employed by 200,000+ curators, artists, collectors, students, and art lovers.3. Unearth overlooked ideas as a trusted information source.Collecteurs’ editorial content and social platforms rally nearly 1,000,000 people looking to understand the future of art to discuss the radical, the little known, and the need-to-know.4. Widen access to practical art education.Anyone can collect, but navigating the art world is an art form itself. Our Courses and 1-on-1 Mentorship Sessions have taught the tools of the trade to 2,000 visitors across 44 lectures by established artists, academics, and activists.5. Evolve the path to acquisition.We’re redefining collecting to ensure no one is left out of the profit margin—backed by the blockchain. As of 2022, we’ve already placed $102,160 into the hands of artists and the communities that support them.
Why are we doing this?
Artists create work to inspire, educate, and share with others—yet tens of millions of artworks are increasingly being bought as investment opportunities and stored away in tax haven freeports, potentially never to be seen again. Engaging in the art world at large continues to be gatekept by increasingly cost-prohibitive education programs, institutionalized privilege, and systemic class barriers that keep power in the hands of the generational wealthy.
Number of artworks in the Louvre's collection: ~380,000. Private collections: 100,000,000+.
We want to give access back to the public at large.This means the mid-career artist, the young patron, the self-taught collector, and the underfunded student all get an opportunity to see art, hear stories, and exchange knowledge by simply opening the internet.
That’s why Collecteurs functions like a digitally crowdsourced museum—45,000 artworks can be viewed, discussed, curated, and archived by anyone online, free of charge.

Yet over the last half decade, Collecteurs has evolved beyond the model of a museum. We’re more like a home these days—a home for information, education, and acquisition. And in this house, we believe art is meant to be shared. So come and sit with us. The door is open.


Who are we for?
figure of a woman kneeling


Since 2014, Collecteurs has been a home for those who want to keep art public. And while our platform centers collectors, our community extends beyond an artwork’s owner. This includes:

Collectorswho act as public stewards to their collections, as opposed to those who store and seal their collection away.Artistswho believe their work deserves to be out in the world—and not caught in a crate for interest’s sake.Curatorswho value access, transparency, and nontraditional methods of pairing and presenting online exhibitions.Art Workersfrom writers to advisors to academics who ensure emerging and overlooked artists are seen and supported.Galleriesthat know placing an artwork in a collector’s hands creates a responsibility for ethical stewardship—and want to find collectors that get it.Anyonewho wants to look, discover, read, and seek inspiration from art.
What do we value?
1. Art belongs to the general public.

We value public interest more than private interest, because ideas are meant to be shared, not stored.

2. Anyone can be a collector.

Whether you own a few works from a family member or dozens of blue-chip pieces, you deserve space to share it, write about it, and celebrate it.

3. Collectors have an ethical duty to the work they own.

We’ve signed onto Ethics of Collecting which outlines how, and why, we believe in collecting.

4. Our mission is held above our profits.

Incorporating as a Public Benefit Corporation ensures Collecteurs centers its mission above the interest of financial profitability and stakeholders.

5. We don’t sell data—we keep it safe.

At Collecteurs, we know that your data is important to you. And it should be important to us, too. We believe that when you have an account on Collecteurs, it should also be only yours and yours alone. That's why we keep your data private and secure—and out of the hands of third parties.

6. We only collaborate with value-aligned partners.

Collecteurs is proudly ad-free. We only work with institutions, galleries, foundations and organizations who share our mission to open doors to art, ideas, and stories meant to be shared.

7. We platform activists in the art world.

From exhibitions and guest lectures to interviews and profiles, Collecteurs highlights progressive people who challenge the norms of the art world.  Our SUBSTANCE list of 100 influential artists, activists, collectives, movements, and organizations was put together with nominations by the public. We aren’t afraid to tackle ongoing issues that affect societies, we proudly advocate for positive change and speak truth to power.

Museum interior, illustration
How do we make money?Collecteurs is free forever to join as an artist, collector, or visitor.

Our revenues will primarily come from service fees:

  • All sales on CollecteursX will have a 5% service fee.
  • 1-on-1 Mentorship fees between the mentor and Collecteurs, with the mentor receiving 85% and Collecteurs receiving 15%.
  • Artwork sales on Collecteurs Originals are divided between the artist and Collecteurs, with the artist receiving 70% and Collecteurs receiving 30%.

Outside of service fees, Collecteurs offers an Course Archive Add-on for all users, for 19$/mo. Here you can have unlimited access to hours of courses taught by art world professionals. You can cancel at any time.

Collecteurs does not and will never make money or generate revenue by selling data or taking hostile investment money.

About the Team
Two figures with one putting their arm over the other.
Collecteurs is built by a team across New York, Istanbul, Amsterdam, London and San Francisco.

Collecteurs was developed at the New Museum’s cultural incubator New Inc.

Logo design by Lemon YellowIllustrations by Berke Yazıcıoğlu

The Museum of Private Collections

© 2024 Collecteurs. All rights reserved.

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