Friends Lecture: Stars of the North: The Formation of Mia's Exceptional Collection of European Art

The Minneapolis Institute of Art holds one of the world's leading collections of European art outside of Europe. This talk tells the fascinating stories of how this internationally acclaimed collection came to be. Since the museum opened its doors in 1915, each generation of directors, collectors, patrons, and curators nurtured the collection's growth in strategic, ambitious, and opportunistic ways. Mia's first forty formative years will be the focus of the talk, but highlights acquired in each decade of the museum's twelve-decade history will be discussed. We will consider the triumphs and setbacks, trends in taste and the art market, and the personalities and institutional aspirations that shaped Mia and its European holdings on its path to becoming a great American art museum.

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