Three case studies reveal how economic downturn is exposing the fragile foundations of China’s private museum boom.

China’s once-booming private museum sector is facing a reckoning. Amid a slowing economy, real estate turmoil, and a lack of systemic support for cultural institutions, some of the country’s most ambitious museums are shuttering, downsizing, or scrambling to survive.

For years, China’s wealthy entrepreneurs treated private museums as emblems of prestige and vehicles for anchoring luxury property developments. But the foundations were fragile from the start. With most institutions tied to real estate ventures, dependent on individual patrons, and operating without robust tax incentives or public funding, the sector was especially vulnerable when China’s real estate market started to unravel in late 2020.