The Brummer Collection at Duke University

In the spring of 1966 Duke University acquired a significant part of the Ernst Brummer Collection which for decades had been hibernating in a New York warehouse and in the apartment of Mrs. Brummer. The story of how this rare and rich collection of more than 280 pieces came to the University has yet to be written. The intuition of a far-sighted President, of perceptive Trustees and of Dr. Justus Bier in conjunction with the rare generosity and insight of Mrs. Brummer worked in harmonious concert to bring about this little-heralded event. The spring of 1967 saw a first exhibition of some thirty-five pieces at the North Carolina Museum of Art. An exhibition catalogue of those pieces appeared under the joint auspices of the Raleigh Museum and of the Department of Art at Duke. The time has not yet arrived to come forth with a catalogue of the holdings but we greet the opportunity to give the readers of the ART JOURNAL an impression of what this collection contains and what it signifies, not only in terms of the new impulses which its presence on the campus has given the University but-beyond-its significance for the history of art.