Vadas József (szerk.): Ars Decorativa 13. (Budapest, 1993)
ÁCS Piroska: Glück Frigyes. Egy polgári műgyűjtő
From 1902 on Frigyes Glück was there at all important exhibitions. 11 Following the 1907 show of Budapest Amateurs, as Jenő Radisics, being the director of the Museum at that time wrote in a letter to Count Albert Apponyi, Minister of Education and Religion: "The key collection of 40 pieces introduced here had been donated to my institute. Most of this - namely 30 pieces were collected by late HefnerAlteneck, the former director of the Bavarian National Museum; after his death in 1904 his treasures were auctioned and most of them were bought by Frigyes Glück. 12 The keys are made of steel and represent the artistic improvement from the 13th to the 18th century. There are pieces with carved handles which make them even more beautiful. The value of the series is enhanced by the fact that most of them were illustrated by Hefncr-Alteneck in one of his essential studies "Eisenwerke, oder Ornamentik der Schmiedekunst des Mittelalters und der Renaissance", thus they are raised to level with world literature..." 13 After the 1912 exhibition of statuettes Glück donated his cutlery collection, a result of thirty years' devoted collecting work, to the museum. "This collection consists of 210 Hungarian, German, French, Italian, English, Japanese and Oriental cutlery, partly in their original case. With one Ancient Roman spoon as an exception, the different cutlery sets or single knives, forks, spoons of wood, bone, horn, mother-of-pearl, silver (gilt and white), bronze and other metal were made in the sixteenth-nineteenth centuries. When taking the inventory, the whole collection was estimated at about 8000 Koronás (contemporary Hungarian money). With this generous donation, to which Glück added two suitable exhibition cases, the Museum gained a group lhat has so far had a few representatives in its collection." 14 In the beginning of the following year Glück also donated two carved Queen Victoria diairs from 1850 to the Museum. In the last third of his life he was interested in excavations revealing objects from the Ancient Roman and the Migration periods, since his land at Domony used to be a Roman settlement and antiquities excavated there turned his attention towards this branch of art collecting. Despite his intention, no comprehensive, illustrated catalogue was made about his collection; after his death, most of the material were taken over by different persons, and a part was sold already in 1931. As a collector and donátor 16 Glück had an active role in Hungarian artistic life: he was a member of the Directory Board of the Hungarian Fine Arts Society, and vice chairman of the Applied Arts Society, of the Hungarian Bibliophil Society, of the Association of Patrons of the Hungarian National Museum, of the Association of Patrons of Arts Museums, of the Hungarian Numismatic Association, of the Hungarian Archeological Association and the Saint Gerogc Guild. His close relation to arts greatly influenced his environment; only few are aware of the fact that the society of "The Friends of Budapest" 17 was initiated by him and he was the one who suggested the construction of the Elisabeth look-out tower 18 on Jánoshegy, the Árpád look-out on Guggerhcgy, with the rock lion lying nearby on Oroszlán (Lion) Road, as well as the most beautiful road in Buda, bearing Glück's name. He was acting on behalf of his beloved city until the last moment of his life 19 ; it seems natural, then, that, as a symbol of thank from artists and patrons, his coffin at his funeral in 1931 was covered by the pall of Munkácsy.
