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The Virginia museum of fine arts, located in 200 N, Boulevard and Richmond is a panorama of world art from ancient times to the present. In the year 2003 the Virginia museum of fine arts passed a master plan of expanding its building and transforming the 13 ½ acres campus. The expansion process is still in progress and is expected to be complete by 2008.
Historical Perspective:
The museum of fine arts has been established after a donation of fifty paintings to the state of Virginia itself by John Barton Payne in 1919. The museum was opened in collaboration with John Garland Pollard, the Virginia Governor and the Federal Works Projects Administration who secured the state funding for the museum. Finally the museum was opened in 1936 on Richmond’s Boulevard. In the year 1947 the museum got one of a major donation from Lillian Thomas Pratt. Peter Carl Faberge donated a collection of jeweled objects and a modern art collection was donated by T. Catesby Jones.
The increasing range of donations coming from different sides extensively helped the museum to stand. Further donations were got by the museum in 1950 from Adolph D. and Wilkins C.Williams and even from Arthur and Margaret Glasgow.
Major Collections:
The museum holds some of the fine art collections including Sporting art Mellon collection, French impressionism, post impressionism, the Art Nouveau of Lewis collections, arts and crafts, art deco and modern decorative arts, contemporary art collections, the Gans collection of English silver, Russian imperial Easter eggs by Faberge, Ancient, Classical and Egyptian art, some masterpieces of European and American painting and one of the world's chief collections of the artworks of India, Nepal and Tibet. Different private donations to Virginia museum of fine arts have helped the museum successfully stand. The museum has a wide range of assembled collection from world art, especially those which are characterized by great breadth and exceptional aesthetic quality. The museum holds significant collection of classical and African art. There are some famous paintings by painters such as Goya, Poussin, Monet and Delacroix. Artworks from some American masters like Winslow Homer and John Singer Sargent are also present.
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