Art, Passion, and Persuasion: The Formation of the Cleveland Museum's Collection of Medieval Art (lecture)

Date: Thursday, December 13, 2007
Time: 7:00 p.m.
Location: Getty Center, Harold M. Williams Auditorium
Admission: Free; reservations required.

American museums—the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Cleveland Museum of Art, and the J. Paul Getty Museum, among others—now own some of the most spectacular cultural treasures of the European Middle Ages, including manuscripts, sculptures, paintings, enamels, and decorative metalwork. How did this come to be? Art historian Holger A. Klein reveals how passion and deal-making savvy helped U.S. collectors bring great medieval works of art to American shores. He focuses on the remarkable collection of medieval, Byzantine, and early Christian art at the Cleveland Museum of Art, highlights of which are featured in the current exhibition Medieval Treasures from the Cleveland Museum of Art, explaining how the shrewd and forward-thinking collecting philosophy of early curators and directors helped them to build a collection of dazzling quality.

About Holger A. Klein
Holger A. Klein is associate professor of art history at Columbia University and a specialist in early Christian, Byzantine, and western medieval art and archaeology, with a focus on the problem of cultural exchange between Byzantium and the Latin West. His most recent archaeological project is a survey of the church of Hagia Sophia in Vize (Turkey). He is the editor of Sacred Gifts and Worldly Treasures: Medieval Masterpieces from the Cleveland Museum of Art and the author of Byzanz, der Westen und das wahre Kreuz (Byzantium, the West, and the True Cross).

How to Get Here
The Getty Center is located at 1200 Getty Center Drive in Los Angeles, California, approximately 12 miles northwest of downtown Los Angeles. See Hours, Directions, Parking for directions and parking information.