“I’m only a little Hebe who was broughtup in the gutters of Brooklyn,” Millionaire Joseph Herman Hirshhorn,66, likes to say in moments of wry self-depreciation. But every inchthat the 5-ft. 4-in. dynamo lacks in physical stature, he has more thanmade up for in wealth: his fortune, based on Canadian uranium, hasgrown to upwards of $100 million. Nor is there any gainsaying hisvoracious appetite for art. “I buy art almost every day,” he says. “IfI can’t decide which of an artist’s work, I buy them all.”
In 35 years of serving himself gargantuan portions, Hirshhorn hasgathered some 5,600 works of art. They overflow his 24-room, 24-acreestate atop Round Hill in Greenwich, Conn., are crammed into theclosets of his New York apartment, and accumulate in warehouses. Hissculptures alone total 1,600, including 17 Rodins, 53 Henry Moores (thelargest collection anywhere).
Up in Regent’s Park. In paintings, his collection is equally rich—andheavily weighted toward Americans. Thomas Eakins, for instance, isrepresented in a quantity surpassed only by the Philadelphia Museum ofArt. He has kept up with recent op and pop trends, owns 30 early andlate works by Larry Rivers. His bet for future fame: Willem de Kooning,of whose works he owns 42. “If ever I have a museum,” he once vowed,”I’m going to have a De Kooning room.”
With such a wealth of art, a favorite guessing game on three continentshas been: Who will get the collection? London’s Tate Gallery offered tobuild a museum in Regent’s Park to house it. Israel was willing tomatch all offers; so was Zurich, Switzerland. At home, Los Angeleswanted the collection for its new museum; Governor Nelson Rockefellerwanted it for New York State; the Baltimore museum offered to build aseparate wing. Hirshhorn himself at various times was rumored to bealternately considering turning his Greenwich home into a museum orplanning to build a complete new town in Canada, to be calledHirshhorn, and donating his whole collection to his namesake city.
Belonging to the People. In the end, even the White House became interested. A year ago, Lyndon Johnson invited Hirshhorn to lunch, suggestedthat he consider giving it to Washington. In August, Lady Bird andLynda Bird made a two-hour visit to Hirshhorn’s Greenwich home andoutdoor sculpture garden, returned with ecstatic reports. Finally, itwas the call of country that won out. Said Hirshhorn: “This collectiondoesn’t belong to one man; it belongs to the people.” The news was toogood to be kept quiet for long. Last week word of his decision leakedto the press; this week the President will make it official.
Plans for a building to house Hirshhorn’s art must await congressionalaction, but there is little chance that Congress will turn down such aprincely gesture. Most likely spot will be an area adjacent to theNational Gallery. Lady Bird is known to be specially taken with theidea of an outdoor sculpture garden that would extend across thethree-block width of the Mall, be available to millions of tourists.
Name on the Portico. Hirshhorn, for his part, wants no doubt at all leftas to why he made his decision: “I am an American. I was born inLatvia.My mother brought her ten children to this country and went to work in apocketbook factory. The things I did in my life can only be done here.”But the grand gesture of anonymity is not his style. His name will beon the new museum. Says he: “I have no advisers. I go on my own. I’vedone this with love, heart, affection and a little money. This is mycollection. This was bought by Hirshhorn.”