Art collection

Art collection, an accumulation of works of art by a private individual or a public institution. Art collecting has a long history, and most of the world’s art museums grew out of great private collections formed by royalty, the aristocracy, or the wealthy. A form of art collecting existed in the earliest civilizations—Egypt, Babylonia, China, and India—as arrays of precious objects and artworks stored in temples, tombs, and sanctuaries, as well as in the palaces...