Museums with a strong reputation are stepping up their partnerships with brands
LancĂ´me recently unveiled a skincare and makeup collection created in collaboration with the Louvre.
Image: Courtesy of LancĂ´me x Louvre
Affected by falling public subsidies, the museum sector is in need of new sources of income. That's why museums with a strong reputation are stepping up their partnerships with brands. While these co-branding partnerships are in the interests of both parties, they are sometimes the subject of criticism.
New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art was founded in 1870 to bring art and art education to the American people. More than 150 years after its creation, the American institution is pursuing the same goal by bringing itself directly into everyone's homes... provided that they have a Samsung TV. And not just any Samsung TV, it needs to be The Frame, an atypically designed TV taking the form of a framed artwork.
The Met has teamed up with the South Korean tech giant to integrate some 30 of its masterpieces into the Samsung Art Store, the image library reserved for owners of The Frame television sets. These include Edgar Degas's "The Rehearsal of the Ballet Onstage," Vincent van Gogh's "Sunflowers," Paul Cézanne's "Still Life with Apples and Pot of Primroses" and Georges Seurat's "Circus Sideshow." Treasures of Egyptian, Islamic and Japanese art also feature in the Met's selection for The Frame televisions.
Josh Romm, head of global licensing and partnerships at The Met, sees this alliance with the electronics group as a vehicle for cultural democratization. "Since its founding in 1870, The Met has been dedicated to bringing art and culture to the daily lives of visitors and art enthusiasts around the world. Our collaboration with Samsung activates this mission in a new and modern way, allowing consumers to enjoy iconic works from The Met’s collection at home. As users explore the selection and choose works to display, this program will create a new dialogue about art, creativity and technology," he said in a statement.
Before the Met, Samsung forged a similar partnership with the Louvre. In recent years, the world's most-visited museum has entered into numerous co-branding agreements to extend its reach and diversify its sources of revenue. The most recent is a skincare and makeup collection created in collaboration with luxury cosmetics brand LancĂ´me. This range of products is directly inspired by nine masterpieces of sculpture on display at the Louvre, including "The Venus de Milo" and "The Winged Victory of Samothrace," as well as by the lights and colors of the Parisian museum.