private collection

Private Collection may refer to:

• Private collection, a privately owned collection of works, usually a collection of art
• Private Collection (Jon and Vangelis album), 1983
• Private Collection (Miki Howard album), 2008
• Private Collection: 1979–1988, a 1988 compilation album by Cliff Richard
• Private Collection (film), a 1972 Australian film

A private collection is a privately owned collection of works, usually a collection of art. If seen in a museum alongside a work or describing a work, it signifies that piece of art in a museum is not actually owned by that museum, but is on loan from an independent source, either for the long term or for temporary exhibition. This source will usually be an art collector, although it could be a school, church organization, bank or other company, or any form of institution. Collectors of books, even if they collect for aesthetic reasons (fine bookbindings or illuminated manuscripts for example), are called bibliophiles, and their collections are referred to as libraries.