Dobrovits Aladár szerk.: Az Iparművészeti Múzeum Évkönyvei 5. (Budapest, 1962)
HOPP FERENC MÚZEUM - MUSÉE FERENC HOPP - Major, Gyula: Memorial Exhibition of the Ferenc Hopp Museum of Eastern Asiatic Arts: The Art of Asia
GYULA MAJOR MEMORIAL EXHIBITION OF THE FERENC HOPP MUSEUM OF EASTERN ASIATIC ARTS THE ART OF ASIA The Museum of Industrial Arts has opened an exhibition, in its galleries in the domed hall and in a part of the galleries on the floor commemorating the fortieth anniversary of the foundation of the Ferenc Hopp Museum of Eastern Asiatic Arts and of the death of its founder Ferenc Hopp. The arrangement of the exhibition coincided with the celebrations taking place at the occasion of the fourtieth anniversary of the Hungarian Soviet Republic, the exhibition of the Ferenc Hopp Museum of Eastern Asiatic Arts being one of its cultural manifestations. The memorial exhibition was justified by the fact that in 1919 the cultural programme of the Hungarian Soviet Republic has provided the establishment of an Asiatic Museum and this idea has given the impetus to F. Hopp, the well known Hungarian art collector, to offer his precious collection of Eastern Asiatic art to the future museum, together with his house (the present seat of our Museum), surrounded by a garden arranged in a Far Eastern fashion. "Das sollte man in meinem Haus aufstellen" were his first words in perceiving the project of the museum. Ferenc Hopp, the founder of the Eastern Asiatic Arts Museum was born in Czechoslovakia, in Province Moravia and came as a poor lad to Hungary. He began his career as an apprentice of the optician firm Calderoni in Budapest, a house of high standing in Austria —Hungary. Then, after having spent years of studies abroad, he was attached to the firm Calderoni for good. In time he became an inner member, a coproprietor and finally the proprietor of Calderoni & Co. His fervent admiration for the Far East and in connection with it his passion of collecting Eastern Asiatic objects of art developed in his early years. Later on he spent his respectable fortune and income almost exclusively on his ever growing passion of purchasing Eastern Asiatic objects of art and journeys round the world. His interest in Far-Eastern objects of art was aroused at a time when interest in Japanese art, except Japanese wood-cuts, was but scarcely manifested : thus he was able to acquire several sorts of objects which were unavailable at all, or only at an excessive price later on. In his first will (1910) Ferenc Hopp has bequeathed his collection to different museums (Museum of Fine Arts, Museum of Industrial Arts, Ethnographical Museum and that of Natural History), but the plan of the Hungarian Soviet to establish an Asian Museum inspired him so much that he altered his previous will, offering his charming "villa Buytensorgh" with
