The Asian Art Museum, San Francisco

The plan then was to leave the administrative responsibility in the hands of the Board of Trustees of the deYoung Museum. At the dedication, Avery Brundage said, "In presenting this collection to San Francisco my hope is that, together with the facilities of the region's great universities, it will help San Francisco and the Bay Area become one of the world's greatest centres of Oriental culture."
Avery Brundage continued to collect for the next decade, spending hundred of thousands of dollars a year filling in the gaps in his collection. In 1969, he was in a position to make a second gift. This was the occasion of Brundage's second challenge to San Francisco - to provide an autonomous administration for the Museum and to raise $3 million dollars for acquisitions and education. The agreement between Mr. Brundage and the City in July 1969 provided for an independent Committee of Asian Art and Culture, whose goal would be to make the Museum the foremost centre in the Western world. At that point, the Museum became an independent entity with its own twenty-seven member governing body (known today as the Asian Art Commission); its own staff, including specialists in Chinese, Japanese, Indian, and Himalayan arts; its own library; its own conservation and photographic departments; and its own budget. The City was to provide building maintenance, security, and adequate funds for standard museum operating expenses, including publication of a complete catalogue of the collections. The museum became known as the Center for Asian Art and Culture and was renamed the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco in 1972.
Avery Brundage continued to collect until his death in 1975. He bequeathed his remaining Asian art to the museum, making the collection by far the greatest in America. The Asian Art Museum is the first one in the United States devoted exclusively to arts of Asia.
In 1987 the City approved a plan for completion of the Civic centre. The plan calls for the construction of a new main public library across the street from the existing beaux arts building and for the Asian Art Museum to move into the space vacated by the library. In anticipation of the fund-raising effort which will be required for the move, an amendment to the San Francisco Charter to establish the Asian Art Commission as a truly independent charter commission was submitted to and approved by the qualified electors of the City and County of San Francisco at an election held on November 8 1988. This Charter Amendment was filed with the office of the Secretary of State and became effective on December 5 1988.

The Collection
With more than 12,000 art objects, spanning more than 6,000 years of history from Neolithic times to the present, the Asian Art Museum collection is one of the most important in the world today. It includes a comprehensive, diversified collections of Chinese jades, lacquers, ceramics and ancient bronzes; the oldest known dated Chinese Buddha; the largest collection of Gandharan sculptures in North America; the largest museum collection of Japanese netsuke and inro in America; and a wide variety of other objects such as paintings, sculptures, architectural elements and decorative objects illustrating all major periods and stylistic developments of the arts of Asia.
Ninety-five percent of the holdings of the Museum was collected by Avery Brundage over a period of forty years. This collection is noted for the diversity of material as well for the high quality of the individual pieces. Nearly half of the collection consists of objects of Chinese origin, and this is reflected in the general permanent layout of the displays. The first floor is devoted to the arts of China. The second floor is divided among the arts of India, Tibet, Nepal, Pakistan, Korea, Japan and Southeast Asia.
In addition, the Asian Art Museum Foundation, the Society for Asian Art, the Museum society, The museum Society Auxiliary, the Connoisseurs Council, and other devoted individuals have substantially augmented Brundage's benefactions with fine objects of quality and rarity in furtherance of the objectives of the Museum's major donor. Such contributions are of vital importance since the growth of the collection depends on gifts and financial support from private individuals and groups. Due to space limitations, only about 15% of the Museums collections can be displayed at any one time. Periodic gallery rotations serve to solve part of this problem, since they aim at showing the majority of our holdings within a reasonable amount of time. The exhibits are arranged chronologically and grouped in a manner which emphasizes stylistic evolution as well as socio-political characteristics. Maps and charts supplement individual labels, and numerous books and brochures dealing with various aspects of the Avery Brundage Collection are available in the Fine Arts Museums stores.

Asian Art Museum of San Francisco
Golden Gate Park
San Francisco, California 94118
Tel: +1-415-6688921, Fax:-8
Wedn.day to Sunday: 10.00 - 16.45 hrs
Closed Mondays and Tuesdays