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

HOPP FERENC MÚZEUM — MUSÉE FERENC HOPP - Ferenczy, László: The Problems of Asian Collections in Western Museum

As a counterpoint to this, Western European and American museums have access to the international art market which is hardly possible for us. Another way of acquiring new material is the arrangement or sponsoring of excavations in Asian countries. Besides the large costs, this is hindered by many restrictions. We can conclude that the acquisition of new material through local excavations is at present rather an exception than the rule. Speaking of the problems connected with the restoration and scientific study of Asian works of art, we can safely say that museums with such collections face also in this regard more problems than museums with European works of art. I think that the greatest problem here is that connected with the material itself of Asian objects. As an example perhaps Far Eastern lacquer works and scroll paintings should be mentioned here. They have materials more or less alien to the West and they need special care and treatment. Lacquer works are hardly to be restored at all and the technique of mounting scroll paintings on paper or silk needs special knowledge and can be done usually with the help of Asian specialists only. Some sort of specialization has been developed in the field of restoration in a few countries. Some museums in India, Germany and the Soviet Union possess a rich ensamble of Central Asian wall paintings. These museums, that is their expeditions, have developed a special method for the taking off and conservation of old wall paintings. I think that museums having developed such highly specialized methods for the conservation and restoration of certain materials could be of much help to museums of newly developed Asian countries. The scientific study and research of collections of Asian works of art also needs more preliminary studies than that of European art. The point in question is not only that a knowledge of Asian languages and historical sources is harder to be achieved or that local studies made in Asian countries can hardly be replaced by studies at home only. The history of Oriental art has not been worked out yet as fully as that of European art and the history of Asian art has far less specialists to do this work than the history of European art has. This means not only that the number of specialists engaged in Oriental studies is far less than in the case of European art. In large countries having richer collections and more orientalists there are specialists not only for Chinese bronzes, porcelaine or Indian miniature paintings. The curators of smaller countries cannot afford such a specialization because they have to work with a wider range of material. Besides, they have no opportunity to see and study such a large number of objects in a given branch of Asian art. Another point is that in the last twenty-thirty years several Asian countries have developed their national schools, and institutes together with their own research staff. They carry on their excavations and research by themselves now and they publish their reports mostly in the national languages. This makes it harder for a Western scholar to keep pace with new events and results in a given field. On the other hand, the number of European and American publications on Oriental art, linguistics and history has enormously grown in the past twenty-thirty years and since an orientalist historian of art must try to remain in touch with these latter disciplines, this makes his task even more difficult. The arrangement of exhibitions of Asian art has also some peculiarities. A serious problem is posed by the limitations of the available collections. The 13* 295