The High Museum of Art hosted its second annual Collectors Evening on Friday, January 28. Participants voted to secure four new acquisitions for the Museum: Vik Muniz’s “Leda and the Swan, after Leonardo da Vinci” (2009); an African “Elephant Headress” (19th century); Spencer Finch’s “Bright Star (Sirius)” (2010); and Auguste-Jean-Baptiste Vinchon’s “Portrait of Nency Destouches” (1829). Additionally, after the formal voting, an attendee offered up four Delta Air Lines worldwide business-class tickets for bidding. The money raised through this impromptu auction allowed for the acquisition of the fifth piece, the limestone sculpture “Lamentation” (1946), by American artist Robert Laurent. An anonymous donor purchased the sixth and final piece for the folk art collection, Minnie Evans’s untitled painting on paperboard (1968).
This event, established in 2010 to build and improve the Museum’s permanent collection, invites guests to take an active role in choosing the next work of art to join the permanent collection. During the evening, each of the High’s curators presents a work of art as a potential new acquisition for their collection. Guests then cast their votes and the High purchases the works of art that received the most votes.
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