Iparművészeti tárgyak a gr. Vigyázó család gyűjteményében
Authors: Horváth Hilda 
Published: February 2014

The reconstruction of the collection of the Count Vigyázó family is based on documents, archive photos as well as over 250 silver objects in the Goldsmith's Department of the Museum of Applied Arts and nearly two dozen art works (tapestry, silverware, furniture) in the art collection of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. All this is, however, only a fragment of the one-time collection associated with Count Sándor Vigyázó of Bojár (1825–1921) and his son Ferenc (1874–1928).

Apart from the acquisitions of these two counts, the collection was also enlarged through the fusion of the goods of two families. Sándor Vigyázó married baroness Zsuzsanna Podmaniczky in 1873, a wealthy scion of an Aszód-based historic family of aristocrats. The growth of the collection was also facilitated by collateral inheritance within the family as well as by purchases e.g. from the collection of Géza Kárász (1828–1888). By the 1880s the collection has assumed its final state, its prize possessions being tapestries, silverware, clocks and watches, jewels, weapons (mainly those connected to prominent historical persons) and caskets.

Similarly to the collection of the barons Radvánszky, a family related to the Vigyázós, the silver collection of the Vigyázó family had both culture and art historical significance. It displayed the diversity of the goldsmiths' craft and a wide array of their product types. Among their 16–17th century objects a considerable Hungarian selection was also included in addition to the works by Augsburg and Nuremberg masters. Specialties of the collection were a silver book cover adorned with a scene crafted after Dürer's print and a boat-shaped table ornament.

In the Vigyázó homes — in the country house at Vácrátót and in the palace at No. 1 Károly körút [boulevard] in Pest — there were also oriental objects beside the European pieces and contemporary art objects were also added to the historical collection.

The last will of Count Sándor Vigyázó dated February 15, 1919 spelt out that should his son Ferenc die without an heir (ultimus tituli in the family), all the Vigyázó property should pass on to the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. The testament of Mrs Sándor Vigyázó born Zsuzsanna Podmaniczky provided for the maintenance in the original state of the Podmaniczky mansion at Rákoskeresztúr. Count Ferenc Vigyázó committed suicide in 1928 and as he complied by his parents' wish, the Hungarian Academy of Sciences became heir-at-law of the fortune. The institution settled the pending debts and the legal claims of other heirs (sons and grandchild of the female line from Zsuzsanna Podmaniczky's first marriage) by auctioning off the nonmuseal part of the collection. The library was incorporated in the Academy and the antiques were exhibited in the Podmaniczky mansion at Rákoskeresztúr opened in 1935. In World War II part of the country house burnt out and the bulk of the collection perished. The rescued tapestries were temporarily deposited at the Museum of Applied Arts and in 1950 three crates of silverware were given to the museum on permanent loan. In 1951 the Academy took back some of the objects that became listed in 1952, and the rest of the silverware and the clocks that remained in the museum were integrated in the museum collections in 1953.