„Facebook for aesthetics“ is how German newspaper „Die Zeit“ described our online community Independent Collectors when we first launched the site in June 2008. We find that description a bit pretentious, but we will say that we are the world's largest open-source platform of privately owned art.

The BMW Art Guide is our global guide to privately built yet publicly accessible collections of contemporary art. The very first of its kind, the art guide allows you to discover and personally visit havens of contemporary art that you would not know to exist.

In our on-going video series, we see writer and curator and Francesca Gavin team up with social media influencers and art advocates embark on a journey to a handful of some of the exquisite collections featured in the BMW Art Guide by Independent Collectors.

A pre-pandemic series on dignity

Against the backdrop of the omnipresent digitalisation of our modern world the issue of technology actively changing the art market has become a widely discussed and pressing matter. To shed some light on its status quo as well as possible developments in the future Independent Collectors and the Association of German Galleries and Art Dealers (BVDG) developed The Beta Manifesto for the Future Art Market.

In collaboration with publishing house Edition Taube we invited a small number of guests to join us in our Tea Garden during Art Basel. In the midst of the annual art fair madness we met in a private garden to sit in a minimalistic surrounding featuring furniture and objects designed by Friederike Daumiller.

Art is precious – topics such as its protection and conservation therefore raise complex questions. Although these topics are covered in art magazines as well as online, those stories are rarely aimed directly at art collectors. This is why we created Allianz Kunst Kolleg. With a high degree of in-depth content, it addresses topics that collectors should pay attention to, regardless of their size.

As a leading insurer, Allianz has been offering professional art insurance solutions for over 100 years. In partnerships with the Museum of Modern Art in New York as well as major museums and institutions in Germany, Allianz has developed relevant content covering the protection and preservation of art collections. The experts have now addressed and compiled selected topics in the 108-page reader “What collectors should watch out for”.

Since January 2020, the art market has been subject to the anti-money laundering legislation, causing the specialized boutique law firm dtb rechtsanwälte and LegalTech company KERBEROS Compliance to team up for a unique joint: legeARTIS. We created their corporate identity, including the website, app, and printed matter.

Berlin’s cultural landscape is as diverse as the many conflicting ideas on how to shape it. Located at the very heart of the city, the Stiftung Brandenburger Tor has made it its primary objective to provide an open platform for the capital’s cultural discourse.

Against the backdrop of the foundation’s 20th anniversary, we were asked to come up with a format idea that serves to communicate the importance of culture in society, as well as the foundation’s multifaceted endeavours to protect it.

When artist A.A. Bronson was asked to participate in the BMW Art Talk „Why Berlin? - The arts and the City“ at Soho House Berlin during Gallery Weekend 2018, he surprised everyone by performing a love letter to the city of Berlin which he had writted specifically for the occasion. The letter is based on The Epistle to the Galatians by Paul the Apostle and the performance moved almost everyone in the audience to tears (including us!). Months later we were in the midst of putting together a Berlin street magazine for the homeless called KARUNA KOMPASS. Discussing the lack of positive energy in Berlin, the letter popped into our heads. This incredibly inclusive and poetic letter that had been read to people sipping champagne in a super exclusive setting. Yet we thought it was meant to be heard by every Berliner regardless of their social background. With the kind support of Esther Schipper we got in touch with A.A. Bronson who gave us the right to publish the letter in this unusual context.

Exactly one century ago, Walter Gropius established the now famous Bauhaus in Weimar, Germany, but few know that only 100 miles away another center of utopian artistry and intellectualism opened that same year, with one key difference: All of the students were women.

In the course of research and preparation for our BMW Art Guide volumes, we continuously stumble upon exciting stories, innovative projects, and publications that explore the diverse culture of contemporary collecting.

In 1929 the exiled German-Jewish soap maker Emmanuel Bronner stepped on to a box in Pershing Square, Los Angeles to promote world peace and unity across religious and ethnic divides. Using the labels of his organic soap products as a medium to deliver his message, Bronner started building a company designed to spread a universal thought: We are All-One or None!

"Futuristic metropolis" is how German department store Karstadt described its luxurious building in a rather run-down part of Berlin when it first opened its doors in 1929. The fact that current owner Signa, a mega real estate company from Austria, hired David Chipperfield architects to recreate the building based on the historical model has sparked controversy among residents, ranging from fear of displacement to the hope of an attractive location in front of their own doorstep. In the meantime, Signa asked us to make use of the giant parking lot in the back of the building and come up with a truly social and ecological concept for the neighborhood. Together with Berlin-based architect Sam Chermayeff, we created the utopian island of Pala – a space where people from all walks of life can come together ...

Coming soon