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

LÁSZLÓ FERENCZY THE PROBLEMS OF ASIAN COLLECTIONS IN WESTERN MUSEUMS A discourse on the problems of Asian collections in the Western hemisphere should include, as an introduction, some reflections on the history of Asian collections in Europe and America. The encounter of the West with the East has been a long process and goes back to ancient times. And the interest in Oriental art dates back into antiquity. However, when we speak of the collection of Asian works of art, a limited span of time is to be meant, the roots of which rose from the renaissance drive to discover the world and which had its peak perhaps around the turn of the 19th and 20th century. The process itself has become a part of human history and so the development of collection is closely connected with historical events. The trends of collection have much changed and followed the course of modern history. The haphazard assembling of every possible exotic items and works of art has developed into a deepening artistic and scientific interest in Asian art, culture and creation. The establishment of large private collections helped in a substantial degree the growth of Asian departments in a number of Western museums. Thanks mostly to the activity of Western museums, the artistic heritage of Egypt, Mesopotamia, India, China and Japan has become a part of the common heritage of mankind. But the planning and establishment of museums with collections of Western art in Japan and India clearly shows that the interest in human culture and art is many-sided and is going to change much in the future. A few words must be told here about the assembling of Asian objects of art in our country. Hungary has never been a sea power and with the exception of a few collections most Oriental objects got into the country through the European art market, chiefly through Vienna. As to the scientific study of Asian art in Hungary, there have been always but a handful of experts, although Oriental linguistic studies and the archaeological research on the great migration period have had a long and successful tradition here in connection with the research on the history of ancient Magyars, Hungarians. These circumstances have determined also the development of private Oriental collections and that of the museum as well. But the fact is that without Francis Hopp there would be no seperate museum of Asian art in Hungary. As to the fate of collections of Asian art in European and American museums, two principal ways emerged. In the first one —and I think that in most countries this has been the practice until now

— the Asian collections belong to or form a part of another, usually large museum. This happens to be frequently a museum of ethnography, as in the case of the Náprstek Museum or