page_title: Ema Gordon Klabin Cultural Foundation
section_title: Ema Klabin
hierarchical_section_title: Ema Gordon Klabin Cultural Foundation / History / Ema Klabin
caption_attribution_description: Português: Mina, Ema e Eva Klabin na Suíça em 1915
context_page_description: The Ema Gordon Klabin Cultural Foundation is an art museum located in the city of São Paulo, Brazil. Officially established in 1978, it is a not-for-profit private institution, legally declared as an organization of federal public interest. It was created by the Brazilian collector and philanthropist Ema Gordon Klabin, with the purpose of preserving and displaying her art collection, as well as promoting cultural, artistic and scientific activities. The foundation is headquartered in Ema's former house in Jardins district, specially designed by architect Alfredo Ernesto Becker in the 1950s to hold her collection. The house is surrounded by a 4,000 square meters garden projected by Brazilian landscape architect Roberto Burle Marx.
  The Foundation's collection includes more than 1,500 pieces, covering some of the most compelling periods of Western art history, from Greek and Etruscan civilizations to European masters, with important works from the Dutch, Flemish, Italian and French schools, as well as works from Asian cultures, African and pre-Columbian art.
context_section_description: Born in Rio de Janeiro in 1907, Ema Gordon Klabin was the second daughter of the Lithuanian immigrants Fanny and Hessel Klabin. Her father was one of the founders of Klabin, a leading paper manufacturer company in Brazil. She spent a great part of her childhood in Europe, making frequent travels to her homeland. Taken by surprise by the World War I, the family, which had been living in Germany since 1913, was forced to move to Switzerland, where they stayed until 1919. During this period, Ema obtained her only formal education. After returning to Brazil, she only studied with private teachers, since at that time there were no conditions for women to study, except at the Catholic schools, which she could not attend due to her Jewish origin. She grew as a great appreciator of music and art, an avid reader, and frequenter of concerts, theater, opera and ballet. She soon developed great interest in collecting. Her first acquisitions were oriental rugs, porcelain and silverware.
  After Hessel Klabin's death in 1946, Ema and her sister, Eva, became heiresses of the family's fortune. Ema also became her father's successor at the company council. She never married nor had children, dedicating herself exclusively to business affairs, philanthropic and cultural activities. As her sister, Ema also continued to expand her art collection, making frequent travels to Europe and the United States to acquire new items. In 1948, she commissioned the architect Alfredo Ernesto Becker to project her a new house in a plot of land she inherited from her father, located in the Jardins district, in order to hold her growing collection. Some time later, she would order the construction of a winter country house in Campos do Jordão, when there was no space left to hold her frequent acquisitions.
  Ema became significantly involved in the cultural life of São Paulo. She served as a member of the boards of trustees of the São Paulo Museum of Art, the São Paulo Museum of Modern Art and the São Paulo Art Biennial. She collaborated at the creation of the Lasar Segall Museum and the Magda Tagliaferro Foundation, and was also a member and supporter of the Sociedade de Cultura Artística and of the São Paulo Philarmonic Orchestra. Among her philanthropic activities, her most significant work was the donation of the amount necessary to buy the lot where the Albert Einstein Hospital would be built, as well as organizing fund-raising activities to help finance its construction. She also collaborated with the Association of Parents and Friends of the Handicapped of São Paulo (APAE), the Association for Assistance to Children with Birth Defects (AACD) and the Cancer Hospital.
  In the 1970s, childless, Ema began to concern herself about the future of her collection. One of her first ideas was to donate major part of it to Brazilian museums. But after the tragic fire which destroyed almost the entire collection of the Rio de Janeiro Museum of Modern Art in 1978, she decided, as her sister, to create a foundation with the purpose of keeping the collection together and turning her house into a museum open to public visitation after her death. Ema died in 1994, aged 86.
caption: Ema Klabin (right) with her older sister, Eva, and her younger sister, Mina, in Switzerland (1915).
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