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An inside look at collecting art, from ebay to the ultra-wealthy. State of the Arts takes a look at how important art collections are built, and what motivates the collectors.
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Friday, October 5, 2007 @ 8:30 pm & Wednesday, October 10, 2007 @ 11:30 pm
 Preview
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mr. wilmerding’s collection goes to washington
Princeton art history professor John Wilmerding made headlines when he donated 51 paintings and drawings by American artists such as Thomas Eakins and Winslow Homer from his personal collection to the National Gallery in Washington, D.C. Wilmerding, who comes from a long line of prominent art collectors, was previously a curator at the National Gallery. His collection focuses on what was once an undervalued period of American painting – one of the focal paintings in the collection, a work by painter Fitz Hugh Lane, Wilmerding bought while still a student at Harvard. State of the Arts finds out what drives one of America’s most respected and widely known collectors to buy art – and then to give it all away.
hear more about three paintings from the john wilmerding collection
- also visit
an online tour of the wilmerding collection at the national gallery of art
www.nga.gov/exhibitions/wilmerdinginfo.htm
- also read
books by john wilmerding
•
American Marine Painting (1987)
• American Views (1991)
• Compass and Clock: Defining Moments in American Culture: 1800/1850/1900 (1999)
• Signs of the Artist: Signatures and Self-Expression in American Painting (2003)
• American Art at Princeton (2005)
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Fog off Mount Desert (1850)
by Frederic Edwin Church
From the John Wilmerding Collection
John Wilmerding, collector
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museum by ebay
Great museums build collections over decades – even centuries. Often they are beneficiaries of generous donors; but when a museum seeks to expand or refine its holdings, they often have to go into the marketplace and buy what they need. So where do museums buy art? From dealers, at auction, and now, even on eBay! State of the Arts goes behind the scenes on an e-shopping trip with the Newark Museum's curator of decorative arts, Ulysses Dietz, who approaches eBay on a whole new level.
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sunrise plate acquired on eBay
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valuing violins
The colorful collector Herbert Axelrod is known for making headlines – first as the benevolent lover of rare old stringed instruments, which he sold to the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra in a sale watched round the world. Later, he made news on charges of tax evasion (these charges had nothing to do with the violins). State of the Arts producer Eric Schultz takes a deeper look at the NJSO’s golden age collection and at the world of buying and selling rare old violins – what are these instruments really worth, and to whom? In 2007, the NJSO, under pressure to lower its debt, announced it will try to sell the collection. They hope to find an investor or benefactor who will buy the collection and loan it back to the orchestra.
hear Dick Donovan explain violin certification
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Ex-Stanley Goodman Guarneri del Gesú 1737
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automata
In an age before electricity, mechanical musical instruments and figures known as automata served as home entertainment systems for those wealthy enough to afford them. Created in Western Europe in the 18th and 19th century, these pieces were built by master craftsmen to mimic people and animals in movement, speech – even digestion. Murtough D. Guinness, an heir to the brewery fortune, collected over 700 of these mechanical pieces throughout his life. State of the Arts sees some of these mechanical marvels in action at the Morris Museum in Morristown, where Guinness’ vast collection now resides, and learns more about them from Ellen Snyder-Grenier, curator of the collection, and Jeremie J. Ryder, a restorer of automata and friend of Murtough Guinness.
 hear recordings of music boxes from the guinness collection
- where to see
musical machines and living dolls:
mechanical musical instruments and automata from the murtogh d. guinness collection
on permanent display
morris museum
6 normandy heights rd.
morristown, nj
(973) 971 – 3700
www.morrismuseum.org
- also visit
www.guinness.com
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An automata from the Guinness collection
Murtogh D. Guinness
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