Vassar Quarterly - Fall 2017 - 14

Vassar Today

FLLAC'S DAZZLING
NEW ACQUISITIONS
The Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, which celebrates its 25th anniversary
next year, has added a rare medieval dove, an Adam Fuss photograph, and other
important works, further enhancing an already stellar collection.
The very rare, approximately 800-year-old gilded dove hanging
inside the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center wasn't on Anne
Hendricks Bass Director James Mundy '74's wish list. That's because
he never thought he'd find one available for sale. Made in Limoges,
France, between 1215 and 1235, the ornate life-sized bird is stunning
with its plumage made of engraved copper and wings covered in
colored enamel and turquoise stones. With a compartment that
would store the Eucharist wafer during Catholic Mass, it was
also once functional. Most of these doves were made in the same
city during a 20-year period. Only about 40 or 50 are believed to
have survived, and just a few are on display to the public in the
United States.
For a small museum, the Art Center has an impressive number
of important works that put it on par with larger institutions, but
the dove is the museum's highest-profile recent acquisition.
The Art Center has more than 21,000 works, only around three
to four percent of which are on display there at any given time. The
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permanent collection continues to grow at a rate of around one
hundred objects a year, a number that includes gifts and purchases. 
Some of the key works were purchased with funds generated by
deaccessioning works of art long unused, and converting their value
into objects more relevant to the educational mission of the Art Center.
"Now the capability to buy new works is about three times as
great as it used to be," Mundy says. But expanding the collection
takes more than money. "You have to have expertise, experience,
and the ability to move fairly rapidly in the marketplace," he says.
That was certainly the case with the Eucharistic Dove. Mundy first
spotted the object last winter while perusing a Sotheby's catalogue,
around two weeks before it was set to go on the auction block. The
director quickly mobilized, enlisting the expertise of Associate
Professor of Art Andrew Tallon, who specializes in the medieval period,
and seeking approval from the museum's collections committee.
With the committee's blessing, Mundy then sent a representative
to the auction in January.



Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Vassar Quarterly - Fall 2017

Contents
Vassar Quarterly - Fall 2017 - Cover1
Vassar Quarterly - Fall 2017 - Cover2
Vassar Quarterly - Fall 2017 - Contents
Vassar Quarterly - Fall 2017 - 2
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