Działalność salonu „Ars” Zygmunta Sarneckiego w kontekście rozwoju rynku sztuki w Krakowie na początku XX wieku
The Activity of Zygmunt Sarnecki’s ‘Ars’ Salon in the Context of the Development of the Art Market in Kraków in the Early Twentieth Century

Summary/Abstract: The issue of the formation of the art market in Poland in historical terms has not yet been widely reflected in art history research. The turn of the 19th and 20th centuries was a period of special flourishing for Kraków as one of the most important cultural centres in the Polish lands under the partitions. The high supply of artworks required the organization of modern forms of sales. Although sales of art objects existed through the activities of second-hand bookshops, bookstores, warehouses, publicly organized auctions, and popular lotteries, there was a lack of professional intermediation that could raise the level of the art market at that time. This gap was filled by the initiative of Zygmunt Sarnecki (1837–1922), a well-known playwright, publicist, and art expert, who in 1904 opened a salon in Kraków called ‘Ars’, which sold sculptures and paintings by Polish artists. The purpose of the article is to describe the activities of this first fully professional art salon in Kraków in relation to the situation of the luxury goods trade at the time. The nature and activities of the company, the process of acquiring works from artists themselves, and its significance for the formation of the art market in Kraków in the early 20th century were reconstructed on the basis of Zygmunt Sarnecki’s hitherto unpublished correspondence with artists and press materials. This topic may inspire more extensive research within the scope of the issues described in the article.

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