Apollo Awards: Acquisition of the Year

We are pleased to present the shortlists for the Apollo Awards 2013 over the coming days, in advance of the release of our December issue. Every year, Apollo celebrates outstanding achievements in the art world, recognising the Book of the Year, Exhibition of the Year, Museum Opening of the Year, Acquisition of the Year and Personality of the Year. The winners and shortlisted candidates come from a 12-month period since late-October 2012 and have been chosen from nominations made by our editorial advisory panel.

The awards are intended to highlight the strength and diversity of the art world. Naturally, for every individual and institution noted here there will be others whose achievements also merit recognition. We welcome your comments and opinions below each shortlist.

We are extremely grateful to Deutsche Asset and Wealth Management for their sponsorship of the Apollo Awards 2013.

Acquisition of the Year

2013 has seen some extraordinary items enter permanent museum collections across the globe. Here are 26 of the most noteworthy acquisitions.

Corning Museum of Glass, New York
Portrait Inlay of the Pharaoh Akhenaten, c. 1353–36 BC
Egypt
Opaque glass, 4.2×2.9cm
Gift of the Ennion Society

Israel Museum, Jerusalem
Collection of 1,200 silver coins, 5th–4th century BC
Philistia, Judea and Samaria
Silver
Gift of Jeanette and Jonathan Rosen

Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Washington, D.C.
374 ancient Arabian artefacts
8th century BC–2nd century AD
Gift of the American Foundation for the Study of Man (Wendell and Merilyn Phillips Collection)

Musée de Cluny, Paris
Plaque depicting the 12 tribes of Israel, mid 12th century
Northern France
Ivory, 19.2×13.1×0.5cm
Acquired with Fonds de patrimoine

Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth
Two censer stands, c. 690–720
Maya, late Classic period (600–900)
Acquired by the Kimbell Art Foundation

Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam
Triptych with the Anointing of Christ’s Body, c. 1410–20
Bruges (?)
Oil and gold leaf on oak panel
Centre 31×31.9cm; side panels 31×12.8cm
Purchased with support from the Rembrandt Association, Mondriaan Fund, Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds (Breeman Talle Fonds), VSBfonds, SNS REAAL Fonds, the BankGiro Lottery and the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen Foundation

The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles
The Roman de Gillion de Trazegnies illuminated manuscript, after 1464
Lieven van Lathem (c. 1430–93)
Tempera colours, gold, and ink on parchment
Acquired with museum funds

Minneapolis Institute of Arts
Saint John The Baptist, c. 1505
Benedetto da Rovezzano (c. 1474–before 1542)
Terracotta, 50×40×25cm
Purchased by the John R. Van Derlip Fund

Mauritshuis, The Hague
Mountainous Landscape with Saint Jerome, 1592
Paul Bril (c. 1554–1626)
Oil on copper, 25.7×32.8cm
Acquired with the generous support of the BankGiro Lottery and a private donor

Ashmolean Museum, Oxford
Gold and silver objects from the Wellby Collection
Pictured: Bowl, c. 1608
Paulus van Vianen (1570–1614)
Lapis lazuli with gold mounts, ht 17cm
The Michael Wellby Bequest

Worcester Art Museum, MA
Venus Disarming Cupid, c. 1555
Paolo Veronese (1528–88)
Oil on canvas, 158.8×138.4cm
Gift of Hester Diamond

National Gallery; Ashmolean Museum; Scottish National Gallery; Fitzwilliam Museum; Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery; Temple Newsam House
57 paintings from the private collection of Sir Denis Mahon
Presented by the Trustees of Sir Denis Mahon’s Charitable Trust through the Art Fund, 2013

Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge
Extreme Unction, c. 1637–40
Nicolas Poussin (1594–1665)
Oil on canvas, 95.5×121cm
Accepted by HM Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to the Fitzwilliam Museum, and acquired with additional contributions after a public appeal led by the Art Fund from the Heritage Lottery Fund, the Friends of the Fitzwilliam Museum, the Monument Trust, and numerous private donors and charitable organisations

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Aurora Triumphing over Night, c. 1755–56
Jean-Honoré Fragonard (1732–1806)
Oil on canvas, 95.3×131.4cm
Purchased with funds by contribution and by exchange from a gift of Laurence K. and Lorna J. Marsh

The Meadows Museum, Dallas
Saint Paul the Hermit, c. 1715
Juan Alonso Villabrille y Ron (c. 1663–1732)
Polychromed terracotta
61×76.2×47cm approx.
Purchased with funds provided by Jo Ann Geurin Thetford in honour of Dr Luis Martin

Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
Maki-e chest, 1630–40
Japan, Edo period (1603–1868)
Lacquered wood, 63.5×114.5×73cm
Purchased at auction with the support of the Jaffé-Pierson Foundation, the BankGiro Lottery and the Rembrandt Association

Tate Britain; National Museum Wales; National Galleries of Scotland; Colchester and Ipswich Museums; Salisbury and South Wiltshire Museum
Salisbury Cathedral from the Meadows, 1831
John Constable (1776–1837)
Oil on canvas, 36.5×51.1cm
Secured for the British public by the Aspire partnership of five UK museums, with grants from the Heritage Lottery Fund, the Art Fund, the Manton Foundation and Tate Members

British Museum, London
The Mission of Commodore Perry to Japan, 1854
Onuma Chinzan (calligrapher), painted by Hibata Osuke
Silk, 28.9×1,525cm
Funded with contributions from Brooke Sewell Bequest, JTI Japanese Acquisitions Fund, Friends of the British Museum, Noriko and Shigeru Myojin, Dounia and Sherif Nadar, Adeela Qureshi and Richard de Unger, and Mitsubishi Corporation

National Gallery, London
The Italian Woman, or Woman with Yellow Sleeve, c. 1870
Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot (1796–1875)
Oil on canvas, 73×59cm
Accepted in lieu of Inheritance Tax by HM Government from the estate of Lucian Freud and allocated to the National Gallery, 2012

Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens, San Marino
13 pieces of furniture designed by Frank Lloyd Wright (1867–1959)
Purchased with the Virginia Steele Scott Acquisition Fund for American Art

Musée du Quai Branly, Paris
The Jacoulet Gift
2,950 watercolours, drawings, studies and other items pertaining to Paul Jacoulet

Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
The Leonard A. Lauder Collection of 78 Cubist artworks by Picasso, Braque, Gris and Léger
Promised gift from the Leonard A. Lauder Cubist Collection

Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville
Blackwell’s Island, 1928
Edward Hopper (1882–1967)
Oil on canvas, 87.6×151.3cm
Acquired with museum funds

Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich
Theo Wormland Collection of Surrealist and New Figuration works
Gift of the Theo Wormland Foundation

Museum of Modern Art, New York
Canyon, 1959
Robert Rauschenberg (1925–2008)
Oil, pencil, paper, metal, photograph, fabric, wood, canvas, buttons, mirror, taxidermy eagle, cardboard, pillow, paint tube and other materials, 207.6×177.8×61cm
Gift of the family of Ileana Sonnabend

Art Gallery of New South Wales
Gospel, 1972
Ed Ruscha (b. 1937)
Acrylic and aluminium on raw canvas 137.2×152.4cm
Gift of the Art Gallery Society of New South Wales with matched contribution from Ed and Danna Ruscha, supported by Gagosian Gallery

Winners will be announced in the December issue of Apollo.
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