TOLEDO, OH.- It has been nearly 15 years since the Toledo Museum of Art has published a volume celebrating the highlights of its world-renowned art collection. The publication this spring of Toledo Museum of Art Masterworks puts the Museum and its glorious and diverse collection squarely in the spotlight.

This beautiful new book illustrates 300 highlights of the collection, from a 3100 year-old Chinese bronze wine vessel to great Old Master paintings such as Rubens’ The Crowning of Saint Catherine to one of the Museum’s most recent acquisitions, an outdoor sculpture by Lynda Benglis. Objects are grouped by culture or period with masterpieces from the Museum’s extensive glass collection sprinkled throughout the sections.

Each of the 300 works of art, including the Museum’s three stunningly beautiful and strikingly different buildings, is illustrated in color, with brief, informative descriptions. The previous volume, Toledo Treasures, was published in 1995 and contained 130 works of art.

In his foreword to the work, Museum Director Don Bacigalupi notes, “The larger scope (of this book) makes it possible to publish not only world-famous works of art, but also lesser-known masterworks, thrilling new accessions, objects made more beautiful by recent conservation, discoveries from current research, and groups of objects that place Toledo squarely on the art world map.”

Masterworks was a collaborative project involving many current and former museum employees including the curators who wrote many of the accompanying articles, the registrar’s office, Museum library, art handlers, graphic designer, publications coordinator, chief conservator, Visual Resources Center and curatorial projects manager. It spent two years in development before being sent off to print
earlier this year.