Apollo's Acquisition of the Year
November 23 2017
Picture: Apollo
I've been meaning to write about two major donations of Old Master paintings to the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and the fact that they have just been named 'Acquisition of the Year' in the latest Apollo awards has reminded me to do so. Says Apollo:
On 11 October, Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts announced the extraordinary promised gift it has received from Rose-Marie and Eijk van Otterloo and Susan and Matthew Weatherbie, two well-known collecting couples who live in the region and are longtime donors to the institution. The Van Otterloo and Weatherbie gift includes the couples’ respective collections of 17th-century Dutch and Flemish painting, carefully assembled over the course of almost three decades, and comprising a total of 113 pictures by 76 artists. In addition, the Van Otterloo and Weatherbie gift will provide funding for a scholarly Center for Netherlandish Art, to be established at the MFA, which will house the library of the late Egbert Haverkamp-Begemann, whose more than 20,000 books on Dutch and Flemish art will also be given by the Van Otterloos.
I know the Weatherbies a little, and in my London dealing days even helped them acquire a work by Van Dyck. I'll embarass them here by saying that they're two of the nicest and least assuming people I've met. And having seen at first hand the care they've put into building their collection, I'm in no doubt that the MFA in Boston will acquire some of the finest Dutch and Flemish Old Masters that have been available over the last few decades. Bravo to them and the van Otterloos!
You can read more about the Apollo awards here.
