Abstract
Art collecting may be regarded as a way to express a collector’s personality. In the case of women, art collecting provided not only a sense of personal, private solace and self definition, but also the freedom to venture into the public sphere and to make a difference in terms of social and political life in their communities. The discussion of four examples of elite female collectors throughout the 20th Century –Louisine Havemeyer, Peggy Guggenheim, Gertrude Stein and Dominique de Menil– shows how their activity went far beyond the acquisition of modern art entering the territory of activism.