Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1914-01-21
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III it were not such an orderly es-
tablishment it might be COM
pared to an Aladdin's cave, magnlfied
a thousand times. for on its walls, in
its cabinets and in it's t1reproof. bur-
glar-proof storage vaults are art OBJ
jects worth $150,000,000, exclusive of
it's financial resources of upward of
$10,000000 1t holds individual works
IF art that are the finest things OF
their kind In the world; it has collec-
tons that have no peers in the great
galleries Of Europe. 1t is only AZ
years since 1t was organized, and in
that half the span of its honorary
presidents life 1t has grown from an
idea to the greatest marvel in the his
tory of art museums in the world
And it never has been able to exhibit
anything like all the art objects in it's
possession.
Long Called an Art Pirate.
It is only for the reason that 1t IS
such a polite institution that ore re-
trains from calling the museum kind
of gorgeous pirates lair, filled with
such treasures magnified thousand
fold, as the Kidds and Morgans OF the
Spanish Main were wont to gather iE
as loot from the galleons and cities
they sacked.
museum trustees made their second
purchase of a collection as a whole in
1872, when they took the Cesnola
antiques away from the British mu-
scum, our greatest art institution has
been looked upon in Europe as an art
pirate ranging the seas of that partic-
ular world and picking up every avail
able treasure that showed it's sail
above the horizon What Dlsraeli
could not induce the British nation
to do-to keep the Colonna Madonna
through It's purchase. Pierpont
Morgan was able to accomplish and
bring 1t to New York. The museum,
however, is the most honest pirates
lair that ever was
When the museum was first organ
lied, in 1871, the officers and trus-
tees started out to raise $3.50, 900, and
the first collection they bought was
one of IT'S paintings of European
schools, for which they paid $116,-
1S0.27. At the present time there are
two single objects In the museum that
cost 100000 each, and the institu-
ton has only recently been presented
with the Benjamin Altman collection
OF rs paintings that are valued at
100000.
That comparison serves to Indicate
the spirit with which the museum is
regarded nowadays as compared to
the era of its beginning. when its first
important acquisition--the Cesnola
collection Of Cypriote antiques-cau
ed the most acrimonious art battle
that this country ever has known. and
when the museum seemed to have
more enemies than friends. Now it
seems to have nothing but friends,
whose lberality surpasses that of any
OF the great prodigals of history or
fiction.
The leader of these friends of the
! museum is the late J. Pierpont Nor
gan, who still lives within the walls
OF the building in spirit and whose
benefactions in the forms of gifts,
loans and influence are as vital today
as they were before his death There
is scarcely a gallery in the whole OF
the many chambered structure that
| does not bear evidence of his gen
crosby and his catholicity of taste.
From the entrance hall. with it's
Don Quixote tapestries that are reput
ed to have cost the late financier
$4,000, through the classical, Egyp
ian, Decorative Art, Painting and