Asian Art Museum of San Francisco (Asiatisches Kunstmuseum San Fransisco)
The Asian Art Museum of San Francisco – Chong-Moon Lee Center for Asian Art and Culture is a museum in San Francisco, California that specializes in Asian art. It was founded by Olympian Avery Brundage in the 1960s and has more than 18,000 works of art in its permanent collection, some as much as 6,000 years old. Its logo is an upside down letter A, which also looks like a letter V with a line through it.
The museum origin stems from a donation to the city of San Francisco by Chicago millionaire Avery Brundage, who was a major collector of Asian art. The Society for Asian Art, incorporated in 1958, was the group that formed to gain Brundage's collection. The museum opened in 1966 as a wing of the M. H. de Young Memorial Museum in Golden Gate Park. Brundage continued to make donations to the museum, including the bequest of all his remaining personal collection of Asian art on his death in 1975. In total, Brundage donated more than 7,700 Asian art objects to San Francisco.
Despite Brundage's professed goal of creating a “bridge of understanding” between the U.S. and Asia, a deeper insight into his actions revealed that he held racist, sexist, and anti-Semitic beliefs that entirely contradicted the mission and values of the museum. In 2020, the museum removed a statue of Brundage from its lobby where it had stood for five decades, and launched a thorough re-examination of his controversial legacy. Museum director Jay Xu wrote that Brundage “espoused racist and anti-Semitic views.”
The museum was awarded the Japanese Foreign Minister’s Commendation for their contributions to promotion of cultural exchange through art between Japan and the United States on December 1, 2020.
Jay Xu is the museum's director.
The museum origin stems from a donation to the city of San Francisco by Chicago millionaire Avery Brundage, who was a major collector of Asian art. The Society for Asian Art, incorporated in 1958, was the group that formed to gain Brundage's collection. The museum opened in 1966 as a wing of the M. H. de Young Memorial Museum in Golden Gate Park. Brundage continued to make donations to the museum, including the bequest of all his remaining personal collection of Asian art on his death in 1975. In total, Brundage donated more than 7,700 Asian art objects to San Francisco.
Despite Brundage's professed goal of creating a “bridge of understanding” between the U.S. and Asia, a deeper insight into his actions revealed that he held racist, sexist, and anti-Semitic beliefs that entirely contradicted the mission and values of the museum. In 2020, the museum removed a statue of Brundage from its lobby where it had stood for five decades, and launched a thorough re-examination of his controversial legacy. Museum director Jay Xu wrote that Brundage “espoused racist and anti-Semitic views.”
The museum was awarded the Japanese Foreign Minister’s Commendation for their contributions to promotion of cultural exchange through art between Japan and the United States on December 1, 2020.
Jay Xu is the museum's director.
Map - Asian Art Museum of San Francisco (Asiatisches Kunstmuseum San Fransisco)
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Country - United_States
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Currency / Language
| ISO | Currency | Symbol | Significant figures |
|---|---|---|---|
| USD | United States dollar | $ | 2 |
| ISO | Language |
|---|---|
| EN | English language |
| FR | French language |
| ES | Spanish language |