Weiner Mihályné szerk.: Az Iparművészeti Múzeum Évkönyvei 12. (Budapest, 1970)

HOPP FERENC MÚZEUM — MUSÉE FERENC HOPP - Horváth, Tibor: The Foundation and Development of the Ferenc Hopp Museum of Eastern Asiatic Arts

TIBOR HORVÁTH THE FOUNDATION AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE FERENC HOPP MUSEUM OF EASTERN ASTATIC ARTS I am very thankful to you all for accepting our invitation and participating in this conference sponsored by the Ministry of Cultural Affairs and the Institute of Cultural Relations in connection with the 50th anniversary of the foundation of the Ferenc Hopp Museum of Eastern x\siatic Arts, This museum was founded by a decree of the Directorium of Art and Museum Affairs, a section of the Commissariat of Education on the 22nd of April, 1919. The new museum was based on the collection of Ferenc Hopp. He was born at Fulnek, Moravia and came to this city as a fifteen year old boy and served his apprenticeship in the renowned optician firm of Calderoni. After spending seven years there, he lelt for Vienna to learn more and to gain experience, then to New York. He was there when the first Japanese delegation visited the city to the excitement of everyone including Ferenc Hopp. After a few years there, he came back to Budapest with enough money to buy the partnership of the Calderoni firm and in a short time became the sole owner of it. His was the best known optician firm in Hungary. In 1882 he was well-to-do enough to realize the great dream of his life which was to make a trip around the world, including a visit to Japan and China. He started to collect mainly Far-Eastern Art on this occasion. In 1910, after his fourth visit to Asia, his collection was large enough (totaling about 5,000 pieces and representing the largest Oriental Art Collection in Hungary) to decide the future of it. Hopp had no family and was living alone. He thought it would be best for his collection if it was divided among three Budapest museums: Museum of Fine Arts, the Museum of Industrial Arts and the Museum of Ethnology. He made his will according to this division. Each of these museums had some Oriental collections which were partly exhibited, but none of them had an expert or a specialist for Oriental Art, The decree issued on April 22nd wanted to help in this situation. It was ordered that the collection of Ferenc Hopp, being the largest, should be united and completed by the Oriental collections of the Budapest museums and that the director of this new museum should be helped by a competent staff. Zoltán Felvinczi Takáts, the keeper of the Museum of Fine Arts got this assignment. Ferenc Hopp in his second will, dated June 22nd 1919, left his villa to the Hungarian State for housing the museum. This generous legacy and the insistance of Felvinczi Takáts made it possible to save the new institution when in