Building Art Collections: Global Perspectives in the 20th and 21st centuries

The Louvre Abu Dhabi Research Journal is a new annual, peer-reviewed, open-access publication dedicated to advancing scholarly discourse related to the museum’s collection and broader thematic topics. The journal provides a platform for original academic research and critical reflection in art history, archaeology, museum studies, conservation, and heritage science. In addition to research articles, it features thematic dossiers, interviews, and reviews of publications and exhibitions, aspiring to offer a comprehensive perspective on current debates and practices across these disciplines.

For its inaugural issue, scheduled for publication in 2026, the journal invites contributions to a thematic volume titled “Building Art Collections: Global Perspectives in the 20th and 21st Centuries”. This issue explores the histories, strategies, and evolving contexts of art collecting. Its focus is on practices grounded in the Middle East and North Africa region, examining their entanglements with global networks and institutions, and their connection to narratives beyond a Western-centric framework.

We invite contributions that critically examine art collecting as a cultural, economic, and political practice highlighting the role of art collecting in shaping knowledge production, artistic value and the expanding canon of art history. We welcome diverse methodological approaches, including case studies, archival research, and comparative analyses. We encourage submissions that engage with, but are not limited to, the following themes:

1. Museums and Collection-Building

2. Transregional Histories of Collecting

3. Private Collectors and Patronage

4. Provenance, Ownership Histories, and Object Biographies

Submission Guidelines

Please submit a title and a 400-word abstract through the journal’s submission platform at https://louvreabudhabijournal.scholasticahq.com , on the ‘For Authors’ sub-page by October 15, 2025. Authors of accepted proposals will be notified in December 2025, with full article submissions due by March 2026. All manuscripts will undergo a double-blind peer review process.