Between 1900 and 1912 the American banker John Pierpont Morgan amassed an unparalleled collection of works of art and in the process greatly contributed to the globalization of the art world. The article
analyses Morgan’s strategies as well as his ties with the network of dealers, curators, and experts that transformed the market and the reception for old European art at the turn of the twentieth century.
Focusing on his relationships with the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, it demonstrates how Morgan, unlike any other American collectors of his generation, was entirely dependent on the expertise and the professional support he found in public institutions. From this perspective the article reconsiders the traditional interpretations of American art collecting and philanthropy during the Gilded Age.