For the greater good? The disputed prestige of private art museum founders in Brazil

This paper explores how the engagement of economic elites with the arts impacts their legitimisation among art professionals. Drawing from interviews with art curators, gallerists, art critics, art collectors, scholars, artists, and museum directors active in the Brazilian art field, we explore how they perceive the founders of private museums in the country. In many respects, interviewees are critical of the founders, particularly regarding their motivations, taste, and character. In order to exclude museum founders as proper members of the art world, our interviewees draw both moral and symbolic boundaries. This does not prevent them, however, from praising founders for their actual accomplishments. These narratives suggest that while elites may seek prestige enhancement, their perception within the art world remains ambivalent at best. This matters because art professionals function as gatekeepers to the art world, as they facilitate access to resources and connections which are valuable for museum founders. We argue that this ambivalence cannot be captured exclusively in the Bourdieusian terms of misrecognition or failed capital conversion. Instead, we draw from Michele Lamont’s notion of boundary drawing to point at the moral limits which economic elites may encounter when they engage with the arts.