From Fascination to Folly: A Troubled History of Collecting since the 1600s

Charles Merewether, born in Edinburgh, received his BA (literature) and PhD in art history at the University of Sydney. He taught European modernism at the Universities of Sydney (1981-84), Universidad Iberoeramericana, Mexico City (1986-88), and Universidad Autonoma in Barcelona. He received a research fellowship from Yale University (1991), was Inaugural Curator for the Museo de Arte Contemporaneo de Monterrey, Mexico, (1991-1994), Curator at the Research Institute, Getty Center, Los Angeles (1994-2003) and taught at the University of Southern California. He was Artistic Director of the Sydney Biennale (2004-2006), Deputy Director of the Cultural District, Saadiyat Island, Abu Dhabi (2007), Director of the Institute of Contemporary Arts, Singapore, (2010-2013), Visiting Professor at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (2014) and Baptist University, Hong Kong (2015). He was Curator of Contemporary Art, National Art Museum in Tbilisi, Georgia (2016-2019). His books include: In the Sphere of the Soviets (2021), State of Play: Art in Georgia 1985-2000  (2017), After Memory: The Art of Milenko Prvacki (2013) and Under Construction: Ai Weiwei (2008), He was co-editor of After the Event (2010), editor of both Art, Anti-Art, Non-Art: Experimentations in the Public Sphere in Postwar Japan 1950-1970, (2007) and The Archive (2006).

• Part 1: Chapter 1: Collectors and Cabinets of Curiosities.- Chapter 2: English exploration, trade and collecting.- Chapter 3: Section.1: The Dutch reimagining the world.- Section.2: Dutch Golden Age.- Chapter 4: English Collecting and museums.- Part 2:Chapter 5: Conquest and Booty: Napoleon and the French.- Chapter 6: All Dreaming of Egypt: The French, Italian and British.- Chapter 7: Diamonds forever: India and England.- Chapter 8: The Return of China.- Conclusion