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Collection Acquisition

Museum Acquisition Press Release Template and Example

An institution acquiring a significant work. The register is institutional and careful: acquisitions attract provenance scrutiny, and a release that skips it invites the question it was avoiding.

The example

Ruby City Foundation Acquires Major Weaving by Maria Alvarez

"Selvedge (Piedras Negras)" is the first work by the artist to enter the collection and the largest textile work the foundation holds

The Ruby City Foundation has acquired "Selvedge (Piedras Negras)" (2025) by Maria Alvarez. The work is the first by the artist to enter the collection and, at 3 by 4 metres, the largest textile work the foundation holds.

The weaving is worked in hand-dyed cotton and salvaged industrial thread recovered from three textile mills in the Piedras Negras region that closed between 1998 and 2012. It was made for the artist's 2026 exhibition at Galería Méndez in Madrid and has been exhibited once.

The acquisition was made through the foundation's Contemporary Acquisitions Fund, with support from the Weaver Bequest. The work was acquired directly from the artist through Galería Méndez.

The acquisition extends the foundation's holdings in material and labour-based practice, which include works by Rosa Iglesias and the Taller Textil collective. "The collection has strong holdings in painting from this region and almost none in textile, which was never a considered position so much as an inherited one," said the foundation's director of collections.

"Selvedge (Piedras Negras)" goes on view in the foundation's second-floor galleries from 14 September.

Work: "Selvedge (Piedras Negras)", 2025, hand-dyed cotton and salvaged industrial thread, 300 by 400 cm

Acquired: through the Contemporary Acquisitions Fund with the Weaver Bequest

On view from: 14 September 2026, second-floor galleries

Press enquiries and images: press@example-foundation.example

Every artist, gallery and institution in this example is invented.

Why it works

Provenance in plain sentences

Where the work came from, how it was acquired, how many times it has been exhibited. For a contemporary work this is short. Omitting it anyway reads as evasion, because for older works it is where the problems are.

Name the fund

Acquisition funds and bequests exist partly to be credited. Naming them honours the donor and tells other donors that credit is given.

Say what the acquisition corrects

The strongest acquisition releases explain what the collection was missing. The quote here concedes a gap, which is more credible than claiming the acquisition merely enhances existing strength.

Conventions
  • Full catalogue line: title, date, medium, dimensions.
  • State how the work was acquired: purchase, gift, bequest, partial gift.
  • Name the fund or donor where permitted.
  • Give exhibition history, even if it is one show.
  • Say when and where the public can see it.
  • Never publish a price unless the institution has agreed to.
What gets it deleted
  • Omitting provenance because the work is recent. The habit is what matters.
  • Announcing before the transaction has completed.
  • Claiming a work is the finest example of anything without support.
  • Failing to say when it goes on view, which is the only question the public has.
Write yours

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Nineteen categories, each with its own register, so an auction result does not read like a residency announcement. Free to start, no credit card.

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