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Reviews
Possession: The Curious History of Private Collectors from Antiquity to the Present by Erin Thompson
tessisreading2's review against another edition
3.0
Interesting and readable - I got through this in about two days - but kind of all over the place: it read like a longform article that had been expanded into a book, with extra examples and a lot of padding added, as opposed to something that needed to be a book. The long chronological span of collecting covered also meant that the book felt unbalanced at times; there's a lot of information about the eighteenth century, probably because the looting/collecting was well-documented and eighteenth century antiquarians loved to hear themselves talk (slash read their own writing), but at the same time Thompson will then dart back to the Medicis or forward to Getty because the book is not organized chronologically but by what the collectors were doing.
amr2024's review
2.0
I was excited for this topic but the book is narrow in scope and its thesis is contradictory. Each example that the author provided did not explain her claim that art collectors did not collect for just social prestige. It was interesting to know that there is a long history of sculptures being modified because owners could not stand the nudity or sexual attributes of the statues.
hadleyharrison's review against another edition
3.0
A solid summary, but felt a bit lacking in depth. Finding materials on private collectors is difficult, so I suppose this is good enough for a primer.
peristasis547's review
informative
reflective
3.25
idk it's very centred around english collectors would have been interesting to see some other countries as well
collismeanshill's review against another edition
informative
sad
medium-paced
3.5
I’ve never been a fan of collecting for collecting’s sake, and this book does nothing to make me think better if it. It did, however, make me rethink the antiquities (and presumed antiquities) found in museums around the world — and the forgeries, looting, and outright theft that have gone into filling them throughout time.
Will I stand with a little less awe in front of my favorite Athena in battle helmet sculpture next time? Perhaps. Is that really such a bad thing? Not really, I’d rather know the whole truth.
Will I stand with a little less awe in front of my favorite Athena in battle helmet sculpture next time? Perhaps. Is that really such a bad thing? Not really, I’d rather know the whole truth.
maybehannahsmith's review against another edition
3.0
Read like a Ph.D dissertation, could be repetitive and dry, other parts were fascinating.
giovannigf's review
5.0
While it's depressing to learn about the abuses of our cultural heritage by private collectors, the anecdotes the author shares are fascinating and often surprisingly funny. My favorite is the one about Henry Blundell boasting that he bought a statue of Hermaphrodite and had its penis cut off to make it a sleeping Venus. *cringe*
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