I don’t know about you, but personally I’ve never heard of the Culver Collection. Probably because it’s private. With a value of 162 million dollars (US) the Culver Archives are up for sale (again). Apparently its current owner is selling the collection because of his “advancing age” for a starting price of only, yes I said only, $15 Million. That would be an amazing deal for anyone who had that kind of money to spend.
“D. Jay Culver collected more than 4.5 million photographs, prints, engravings, stills, play bills and other items, most of which has not seen since before he collected it. Culver started collecting in 1926 providing pictures for various well-known magazines and publication. He tracked down photos for assignments through second-hand bookstores, auctions of old libraries and even attics. When he couldn’t find existing pictures, he’d take the photographs to fill the assignment. He continued collecting until his death in 1968 when he had the largest known collection of images, which today would rival the Getty collection. “
That sure is a lot of boxes! A collectors dream. We could sit there all day looking through Photographs and Ephemera. An absolutely amazing collection, one that I feel should be put into the Library of Congress or the Smithsonian. It has such cultural significance, and to think another private collector could buy it to merely monetize it. That would be a shame. Business is business I guess, but sharing art history is a pretty good reason not to sell it to a private collector again. It will be interesting to see what happens next.
You can read more about it on the PR Newswire here. To get a bit more information on the Culver Collection head on over to their official page here.
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