The Matsukata Collection: A One-Hundred-Year Odyssey

Kojiro Matsukata (1866-1950) was a successful business man who devoted his life and fortune to collecting Western art, ranging from medieval panel paintings and tapestries to works by Monet, Gauguin and Van Gogh, as well as modern British paintings and sculptures by Rodin. Matsukata hoped to build a national museum in Japan to house these treasures, but his dream never came to fruition due to the Showa financial crisis of 1927. The collection was dispersed for storage in Japan, London and Paris. In celebration of The National Museum of Western Art’s 60th anniversary, over 160 artworks from the Matsukata Collection will be put on display, along with a variety of historical materials.