It is not an easy task for an art historian to deliberate on collecting and the role or impact of a collector on the territory of what is now Slovakia. From among all of the countries of the former Eastern Bloc, this phenomenon was perhaps the least present in our cultural milieu. Collecting and the general awareness of it before 1989 developed in a way that neither had an effect on its internal development, nor allowed it to influence domestic cultural life to any essential extent.   
This was the result of several significant factors.  First of all, in the first half of the 20th century, historical turning points created deep horizontal fissures that prevented continuity on the national, religious, class and proprietary levels. The list of such historical-social events would only indirectly indicate the extent of their destructive power which compelled wave after wave of migration of persons, capital and property.  Turbulent changes in ownership relations (aryanization, confiscations, expropriation of church and aristocratic property) covered the traces of the original owners and initiators of collections – representatives of aristocratic families, the church, the wealthy Jewish community, the entrepreneurial class and the burgeoning Slovak intelligentsia. 

After the Communist revolution in 1948, the natural development of collecting came to a virtual halt due to changes in relation to private ownership. The newly established social order did not explicitly ban private collections; however surrounding oneself with artwork did not correspond with the proper way to spend one’s leisure time. The unnatural political and economic concentration modified the nature of the local art market – private galleries and auction houses did not exist; there were only state-run antique shops and a monopoly network of specialized art shops. Artwork could not be bought, sold or traded outside of these places. Collecting as an activity built on the circulation of goods and their free and repeated exchange could not expand in its traditional form.  On the contrary, such activity teetered on the edge of legality for almost half a century and, with a few exceptions, the function of the collector was literally erased from our history. 

Slovak collectors before 1989 did not actively engage in cultural activities or attract the attention of art history; they usually operated privately, unbeknownst to the general public.  Their activities did not inspire any reflection in professional, business or social spheres.  To date, there are no specialized workplaces in Slovakia that would pay proper attention to the research of the history of collecting, and gathering and analyzing information. This is another explanation for the lack of coherent information regarding historical and modern private and corporate collections; a more thorough expert assessment and analysis of the internal motivation of their founders, and a classification of principles, models and specific domestic features are missing.   

Very few Slovak art history texts deal with the this theme, and are mostly devoted to the sale of aristocratic collections; researchers were usually more interested in attempts to reconstruct individual collections¹, while analyzing museum strategies, the status of the artist, art historian and the influence of the commissioning party². Recently, the focused research and publication activities of Ingrid Ciulisová has opened the topic of Central European collecting for our discipline and raised possibilities for future research³. Interest in this issue has also begun to develop at public collecting institutions. In several recent projects, the Slovak National Gallery has outlined complicated family trees and the paths that individual artwork travelled on their way to the SNG collections. The research of Zuzana Ludiková, the curator of the collection of old European art who made use of the outcomes in exhibition projects (Italian Painting, 2013), has been particularly instrumental. The practice of Alexandra Kusá, SNG’s new director, to present the year and manner of acquisition of the artwork is another feature of this trend.  

1 Verejné aukcie starožitností a umeleckých diel za predmníchovskej ČSR (Sabol, 1958); Z histórie zberateľstva. Súkromné zberateľstvo na Slovensku I.-III. (Keményi, 1990); Moderný obchod s umeleckými dielami (Kemény, 1993); Albert Sasko-Tešínsky a barokové zberateľstvo (Zervan, 1998); Umelecká zbierka grófa Jána Pálffyho a jej aukčný rozpredaj vo svetle archívnych dokumentov (Ciulisová, 2000); Získané a rozptýlené: Zbierky Grazioso Eneu Lanfranconiho a baróna Karla Kuffnera (Ciulisová, 2007); Vojvoda Albert Sasko Těšínsky a jeho vkus (Ciulisová, 2012).

2 Regarding this subject, see the studies of professor Ján Bakoš presented in the publication Umelec v klietke - Meditácie o umelcovi, práci, ideológii a trhu and Doslov: Z klietky na trhovisko.

3 See the publication Man of Taste (Ciulisová, 2014) which contains studies regarding the topic:  Duke Albert of Saxe-Teschen and his Taste; Art Collecting of the Cenral-European Aristocracy: The Case of Count Pálffy; Acquired and Dispersed: The Collection of Baron Karl Kuffner and Enea Grazioso Lanfranconi.