Bányai Balázs - Kovács Eleonóra (szer.): A"Zichy-expedíció"- Szent István Király Múzeum közleményei. A. sorozat 48. (Székesfehérvár, 2013)
The "Zichy Expedition"
THEZICHYMUSEUM 217 cember 1898 he arrived in Budapest with lots of Chinese art treasures,'91 but without the documents from the Middle ages. His efforts were respected, even admired. As a reward of his deeds, he was elected honorary member of the Hungarian Geographical Society in 1898 and of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in 1899.192 Among others, the Hungarian Geographical Society wrote positive articles about his achievements. The Count and his colleagues took photographs and described places, cities and lands formerly almost completely unknown in Hungary. Ernő Csíki contributed almost 200 new species to zoology'93 and made some meteorological observations and height measures as well. Pápay did cartographical research. The notes of Jenő Zichy and the diaries of Pápay described the public situation and economic geography of imperial Russia very well.194 Not only did Zichy finance the expedition, but also the six volumes that published its results. With financing and organising the three Asian expeditions he inscribed his name in Hungary’s scientific history. THE ZICHY MUSEUM Jenő Zichy had a respectable collection of fine and applied arts. After uniting that with his father’s collection, he became the owner of one of the most important private collections in Hungary. In his gallery of 450-500 paintings, every period of classical painting was represented. Among his treasures were the works of Giovanni Battista Moroni, Bernardo Strozzi, Salomon van Ruysdael, Jacopo Bassano, Canaletto, Ján Kupeckÿ, Ádám Mányoki, Károly Markó sen. and Géza Mészöly.'95 His collection of weapons, his library, his above mentioned ethnographical material and collection from the East were also exceptional.'96 These treasures of the family were not only available for friends in his palaces and manor houses, they were regularily displayed at exhibitions. The goal of Jenő Zichy was not to reserve the collection to a narrow group of people, he wanted to show them to the public as well. In 1899 he bought the house in Szegfű street next to his palace in the Rózsa street, in order to establish a museum.'97 In its place he built the museum according to the plans of Frigyes Kovács'98 and connected it to his palace. The festive opening of the museum along with a concert and the performance by Mari Jászai took place on 23th February 1902. The Count himself introduced the collection to the representatives of politics, science, literature and arts.1" Among the pieces of applied art was Zichy’s Asian collection, which became the first museum of the East in Hungary.200 The exhibitions could be visited three times a week free of
