Claremont Colleges Sells Collection Of Rare Musical Instruments
The Fiske Museum at California’s Claremont Colleges has sold its collection of rare musical instruments to the Musical Instrument Museum which will open in 2010. The project to build the new museum is backed financially by Robert Ulrich, chairman of the Target Corporation.
The Claremont Colleges’ collection of rare musical instruments includes an 18th century Italian mandolin, unusual over-the-shoulder military brass instruments from the Civil War era, a gourd fiddle from Africa, and a nine-foot-long temple trumpet from Tibet.
The Los Angeles Times reports that the collection has 1,200 rare musical instruments from around the world.
The museum had limited visiting hours at its home in the windowless basement of Bridges Auditorium for three decades, and then it closed altogether 16 months ago, partly because of a lack of upkeep funds. Now, almost the entire batch — harpsichords, pianos, clarinets, banjos and cymbals — will leave its home in Claremont and be sold for an undisclosed price to a music museum under construction in Arizona.
According to UPI.com, Claremont Colleges’ prized instruments have rarely been available for showing to the public reportedly because the colleges couldn’t afford to maintain the collection properly.
Barbara Jefferson, the advancement director of the Claremont University Consortium (CUC), is quoted commenting on the decision to sell the collection.
“This is a rare opportunity to keep the collection together. The stars just lined up for this.”
Photo: © celikins
No related posts.
-
Colleges
