Clockwise from far left, in the Sotheby’ s galleries for The Vision of Aso O. Tavitian auction earlier this year; Tavitian and Harvey Tessler on a business trip with SyncSort, standing with Iwasaki employees at Hakone Lake in Japan, 1989; Tavitian with Isabella Meisinger; and Tavitian on the terrace of his Stockbridge home.
Collections and Exhibitions and Curator of Decorative Arts, met Tavitian in 2005, when she first started working at the museum. Her friendship with him was highlighted by trips to TEFAF. He became such an important collector that dealers would reach out to him before the event to let him know about special items they would be bringing. Often on the first hour of the fair, Tavitian would have bought something great. He always hosted a private dinner at La Cantina in Liège, about 30 minutes from TEFAF, that first evening of the fair. It initially included Meisinger, the Clark team, conservators David Bull and Teresa Longyear, Candace and Rick Beinecke, and London gallerist Alan Rubin. Through the years, the gathering grew to some 30 people.
“ It was very exciting,” Morris says,“ because the first day is always just this thrill of seeing what ' s there, and everyone ' s talking about who they think bought what. I got to know him through those fairs.”
Meslay became acquainted with Tavitian in 2008 in Paris, while Meslay was working at the Louvre. A mutual friend, Old Masters consultant Etienne Bréton, introduced the two of them, and they hit it off right away. For one thing, Tavitian and Meslay had the Berkshires in common— Tavitian with his home in Stockbridge and serving as a board member of the Clark; Meslay, a fellow at the museum with his wife in 2000. Tavitian visited Meslay when he worked at the Dallas Museum of Art, and when Meslay became director of the Clark in 2016, their relationship grew even stronger.
Like others who visited Tavitian’ s home in Stockbridge, Meslay felt it was a privilege to be there every time he went. There weren’ t many people in the world who were able to combine a personal connection with the financial ability to collect such incredible pieces, Meslay says. He was especially drawn to two works. One was Portrait of a Young Man Holding a Lira da Braccio( c. 1510 – 20), artist unknown. The other was attributed to Luigi Miradori, Girl with a Lute( c. 1640). There was also one that Meslay saw at an art fair just before Tavitian bought it, Self-Portrait in a Turban( 1650 – 75) by Wallerant Vaillant. All are now with the Clark.
“ When you were with Aso, you had the feeling that there was a dialogue between him and the work he had in front of him,” says Meslay.“ It was not a trophy collection. They were masterpieces, but at the same time, it was something appealing on a very personal level.”
In addition to the Clark, Tavitian was deeply connected to other museums located close to where he lived. That included The Metropolitan Museum of Art and The Frick, both on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. But there was a reason the Clark received the lion’ s share of Tavitian’ s collection.
“ It came down to space more than anything,” says Ian Wardropper, who retired this year after 14 years as director of The Frick. He admitted he was a bit disappointed, but also realistic.“ We ' re a relatively small house that was built in 1914 and added to in 1935 when we opened to the public. We just recently finished a refurbishment and enhancement of the building but haven ' t really added a lot of gallery space. We simply wouldn ' t have had room the way that the Clark did, to build an entire building to house the collection.” Another reason why the collection went to the Clark, he says, is because it is a teaching institution, which was very important to Tavitian.
On April 17, The Frick reopened after a multi-year renovation. One of the first paintings you come upon is a gift from The Tavitian Foundation: Giovanni Battista Moroni’ s stunning Portrait of a Woman, the most significant Italian Renaissance painting the museum has acquired in more than half a century. Moroni was one of the great portrait painters of the mid-16th century, and The Frick had previously devoted a whole exhibition to him, with this painting a centerpiece of that installation.
“ From that moment, we saw how well it fit our holdings,” says Wardropper.“ We did not have a Renaissance portrait of a woman on panel or canvas before. It was thematically an addition, but also it’ s one of
May / June 2025 BERKSHIRE MAGAZINE // 17