American Art | European Art | Egyptian, Etruscan, & Greek Art | Asian Art | African, Pre-Columbian, & Oceanic Art | Kress Study Collection

In the past 25 years, the Vanderbilt Fine Arts Collection has greatly expanded its Asian art holdings to approximately 2,500 works, primarily due to donations from many individuals.

In 1978, Vanderbilt was extremely fortunate in being given the first choice in selecting 25 Asian works of art from the estate of Harold P. Stern, the former director of the Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. In addition, Vanderbilt was able to acquire Stern's collection of rare Japanese and Chinese illustrated books, most dating to the seventeenth through nineteenth centuries.

Japan is strongly represented in the Asian collection, due in great measure to the generosity of Herman D. Doochin and Chauncey P. Lowe. Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Southeast Asian ceramics constitute another major portion of the collection.

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