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The wealth such a huge collection represents could easily paint Microsoft in an unflattering light.
  technofile
Al Fasoldt's reviews and commentaries, continuously available online since 1983

How to view Microsoft's huge art collection


July 4, 2001


By Al Fasoldt
Copyright © 2001, Al Fasoldt
Copyright © 2001, The Syracuse Newspapers

   Microsoft is not just a software company. It's one of the world's largest art collectors.
   The company that makes Windows collects art. It owns a gigantic hoard of paintings and photographs collected over the last 15 years or so. Microsoft's collection of 2,700 works is so large that it could be the largest private collection in the world. No one knows for sure.
   Microsoft has kept most of its activity in the art and photo market very quiet. Traditionally, active collectors like to keep out of the press because publicity drives up prices.
   But Microsoft might have had another reason -- potential embarrassment. The wealth such a huge collection represents could easily paint Microsoft in an unflattering light, especially after lawsuits accused the company of overcharging for Windows and after a federal judge found the company guilty of operating an illegal monopoly.
   But times have changed. The company is working on a new version of Windows that can't be installed without specific permission from Microsoft -- a brazen gesture for a company found guilty of monopolizing the software market -- and it's showing off its expensive taste in art on a Web site everyone can go to.
   The site is www.microsoft.com/mscorp/artcollection. The site is exceptionally well organized and fascinating to browse through, and photos of the collection are clear (although they're too small to use as background images unless you're using a Palm computer or some other handheld device).
   The Microsoft art collection is not related to a collection held by Bill and Melinda Gates -- he's the cofounder of the company and is worth $60 billion or more -- and it's not part of the immense Corbis collection, also owned by Gates.
   The Corbis project tries to preserve valuable photographs both physically and electronically. Photos in the Corbis collection are stored safely away, but they are also carefully copied into digital form.
   The digital versions of the Corbis photos will last virtually forever. (All pictures on a Web site are digital, as are pictures that are scanned or taken with a digital camera. The files that contain these photos can be copied easily and kept on CD-ROM disks for many years without deterioration.)
   If you'd like to find other art collections online, go to the Digital Librarian at www.digital-librarian.com/ and click on the "Art" link. The Digital Librarian site, which I consider the world's finest intelligently organized set of Web links, is run by Cortland librarian Margaret Vail Anderson.