FAMOUS ART COLLECTION

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20503, 3 January 1935, Page 1

FAMOUS ART COLLECTION

Purchase by British Museums Arranged. (Received January 3, 12.20 p.m.) RUGBY, January 2. The famous Eumorfopoulos collection of Chinese and Far Eastern works of art has been acquired for the Nation by the British Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum jointly. This collection, which is one of the most extensive of its kind, is celebrated throughout the world for its quality and rarity. Its specimens, sculptures, metalwork, jades, gold, silver, glass, ivories, lacquer, paintings, pottery and porcelain are all included, and the whole of these groups are represented. The national collections, until now, have contained few or no examples of them. The total price for which the collection was offered was £IOO.OOO, and a preliminary payment of nearly half that sum will be made in a few days. The collection will be exhibited as soon as possible, and loans from it later will be available for the leading museums outside of London. Helpful contributions towards the initial payment were received from the National Art Collections Fund. Sir Percival David, and the Universities’ China Committee. The collection represents thirty years’ work by Mr Eumorfopoulos, a member of the firm of Greek merchant bankers, who lives in London, and was born in Liverpool seventy-one years ago. Judged by its value, the “Manchester Guardian ” says, the sum of £IOO,OOO is so ridiculous that the sale becomes a princely gesture. “ The Times ” describes the collection as literally priceless, and says that Mr Eumorfopoulos, in allowing it to be bought at such a figure, ranks as a great benefactor to the national museums.