Treasures of Tibetan Art: Collections of the Jacques Marchais Museum of Tibetan Art

Journal of the American Oriental Society, The, July-Sept, 2000 by Edwin Gerow

Treasures of Tibetan Art: Collections of the Jacques Marchais Museum of Tibetan Art. By BARBARA LIPTON and NIMA DORJEE RAGNUBS. Oxford: OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS, 1996. Pp. xviii 295. $29.95 (paper).

The Jacques Marchais Museum is located on Staten Island and houses a representative ensemble of circa twelve hundred Tibetan items that began as a personal collection in the 1930s, but has since been augmented with other purchases, notably that of the Bendix estate. Many of the items were acquired from or in China during very troubled times when many objets d'art sacre's found their way into private hands. Jacques Marchais, a pseudonym of the founder-collector, Edna Coblentz, was evidently a colorful personality, who, among her other achievements, designed and oversaw construction of the present museum property--a Shangri-La in the New York 'burbs, or, in her words, "the Potala of the West." This catalogue presents 146 pieces, some in color, none very old, which certainly give a well-rounded view of the various genera of Tibetan art. A lovely photo of the Museum's "altar" is also provided. Two appendices, various indices, and a bibliography round out this quite useful volume--and one made available at a reas onable price.