Thanks to the generosity of many collectors, our cities now have major museums that allow their residents and visitors to enjoy the pieces that these men and woman collected with passion throughout their lives.

However diverse they might be as a group, collectors have one characteristic in common: a passion for collecting. Antonis Benaki, William Burrell, Calouste Gulbenkian, Frederic Marès and Gian Giacomo Poldi Pezzoli also shared a didactic vocation that caused them to worry about the future of their collections at the end of their lives; groups of works that they brought together whose significance lies in their indivisible nature.

The Benaki Museum in Athens, The Burrell Collection in Glasgow, The Calouste Gulbenkian Museum in Lisbon, The Museu Frederic Marès in Barcelona and The Museo Poldi Pezzoli in Milan have decided to pay tribute to the men that made their existence possible by working together on projects that focus on the figure of the collector.

The results of the collaboration between these five institutions, on which we are already working, will bear fruit as conferences, exhibitions and/or publications over the next few months.