In this state-of-the-art article, we review studies of the highly controversial, global rise of private art museums as a new organizational form within art fields. Given that current studies are scattered across different disciplines like sociology, museum studies, economics and anthropology, a systematic engagement with theoretical and methodological issues is difficult. This paper compiles and discusses these studies, identifying key themes, controversies as well as areas of consensus. We organize our review according to eight key themes: 1. (non)-existent definitions of private museums; 2. their historical roots; 3. geographical dimensions; 4. the life course of private museums; 5. their relation to public museums; 6. the involvement of the government; 7. private museums as actors in the art field, and 8. the implications for the (re)production of social inequalities. We conclude by reflecting on the most significant gaps in the literature and formulate a research agenda that can guide us to a more systematic inquiry of the private museum phenomenon.

在这篇最先进的文章中，我们回顾了关于私人艺术博物馆作为艺术领域内一种新的组织形式的极具争议性的全球崛起的研究。鉴于目前的研究分散在社会学、博物馆研究、经济学和人类学等不同学科中，系统地参与理论和方法论问题是很困难的。本文汇集并讨论了这些研究，确定了关键主题、争议以及共识领域。我们根据八个关键主题组织我们的审查： 1.（不）存在的私人博物馆定义；2.他们的历史根源；3. 地理维度；4.民营博物馆的生命历程；五、与公立博物馆之关系；6. 政府的参与；7. 私人博物馆作为艺术领域的参与者，以及 8. 对（再）产生社会不平等的影响。最后，我们反思文献中最重要的空白，并制定一个研究议程，以指导我们对私人博物馆现象进行更系统的调查。