Imre Jakabffy (szerk.): Ars Decorativa 1. (Budapest, 1973)

TIBOR HORVÁTH 1910—1972

TIBOR HORVÁTH 1910—1972 Tibor Horváth, director of the Francis Hopp Museum of Eastern Asiatic Arts and deputy director general of the Museum of Applied Arts at Budapest passed away after a sudden and incurable illness on March 31, 1972. He entered the Museum of Eastern Asiatic Arts as a curator in 1939 and became the director of the same museum in 1948. At the University of Budapest he studied the archaeology of Hungary and after graduating he carried out many excavations here in the thirties, mostly in the cemeteries of the Great Migration Period, of the Avar Age. Through these archaeological studies and after having had written a number of important publications relating to this subject his interest shifted to the archaeology of Asia. In 1941 he went to Japan on a fellowship of one year but because of the second world war he stayed and studied there until 1947. On returning to Hungary he took over the direction of the Francis Hopp Museum of Eastern Asiatic Arts from Zoltán Felvinczi Takáts and since that time his work and activities got connected to the collections of this museum, that is to the art of Asia. His chief merit was the systematic and scientific enlargement of the collections, to which he himself contributed with the generous donation of many excellent Chinese and Japanese archaeological finds, ink paintings and ceramics collected by him personally in Japan. His wide interest and studies helped him very much in selecting always the best available pieces for the various collections of the museum. Another major contribution of his to the work of the museum was the organization of exhibitions. Under his guidance more than thirty exhibitions were arranged in the two buildings of the Hopp Museum and in several other museums in the country. The last exhibition on which he worked personally was the exhibition of Chinese jade carvings in 1970. He made several study trips to Near and Far Eastern countries. On his trip to China in 1955 he visited many museums and archaeological sites. In 1961, together with Mongolian archaeologists, he carried out excavations of HsiUng-nu graves at Selbe, in the vicinity of Ulan Bator. In the same year, on his trip to Vietnam he arranged an exchange of ceramics and archaeological finds. In 1967 he spent three months in India studying museum collections and giving lectures in various cities there. On the invitation of Japanese Government, in connection with the Expo, he returned to Japan for a short time in 1970. 207