Wolfson's Miami museum displays eclectic artifacts

MIAMI BEACH — As Mitchell "Micky" Wolfson Jr. '63 tells it, the 1989 addition to the Princeton Art Museum was conceived by two men in a hot tub.

"[Former University President] Bill Bowen GS 58 came down to Miami, and he absolutely seduced me right there in the jacuzzi," Wolfson said.

" 'Now Micky,' he said, 'It's time for you to pay your debt to Princeton. The University needs a new wing for the art museum.' "

After Bowen gave his pitch in the Miami hot tub, Wolfson grabbed a towel, dried off and cut a massive check to fund the construction of 27,000 square feet of gallery space.

"He sold me the new wing of the art museum. Bill Bowen was the best salesman the University ever had."

Bowen could not be reached to comment on the exchange, but Tom Wright '62, Wolfson's close friend and University vice president, had something to say about the seduction.

"The hot tub existed," Wright said. "That's when the gift solicitation took place. I cannot speak to the specific events in the hot tub, but President Bowen was willing to go to great lengths to get a donor. Dollars were worth more then."

Though he isn't the most regular of Princeton alumni, Wolfson is an imposing figure in the South Florida cultural world as a patron of universities and museums. A world traveler and self-described "preservationist," his obsessive collecting, which began with swiping hotel keys, has turned into a $70 million museum and research institution.

His studies at The Lawrenceville School, work in European civilizations and art history as a Princeton undergraduate and graduate work in international relations at Johns Hopkins fostered his fascination with the connection between art, behavior and power.

He is founder of the Wolfsonian-Florida International University Museum here, an elegant Mediterranean style warehouse blocks from night clubs and lavender deco hotels in the heart of glitzy South Beach. The building is filled with Wolfson's personal collection of oddities and artifacts from the period 1885-1945.

He has collected the pieces over dozens of trips around the world and ships them back to Miami. Wolfson travels half the year. Until it was destroyed by Hurricane Andrew, he traveled on an antique rail car to scour antique stores and haggle with dealers.

And money is no object. In 1984, he inherited $84.4 million from the sale of his family's chain of movie theatres and TV stations. Since then, he has spent large sums of his fortune on objects few people cared about. The result is the "autobiographical" Wolfsonian, a smattering of the self-proclaimed "hunter-gatherer's" whims and taste.

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The idea behind the collection is that every toaster, poster, statue, medallion and alarm clock tells a story of human behavior and motivation. The permanent collection, "Art and Design in the Modern Age," showcases 300 items — just a fraction of the museum's holdings that now includes some 100,000 decorative objects, books and prints.

Wolfson is fascinated by how these objects tell the story of our social history. "The how and why someone made something," he said simply.

"I came up with the idea of creating an educational resource with this stuff," he said. There was no question that it would be in his hometown. "A house of muses is okay for established cities," he said, affecting a holy timbre, "But not Miami."

"I tried to create an educational resource more active than a museum." Wolfson wanted people to "engage rather than admire."

Since it opened in 1995, the museum has proven design can be used as a vehicle for politics and propaganda and also memorialize the morals of the day. The overarching theme links posters from Nazi Germany and "Mein Kampf" (in Braile) to tank-like radios and toasters and torpedo-shaped cigarette lighters.

"I have no favorites," he said. "Except everything I ever bought."

"The curators look at me in a strange way. That amuses me," he said. "When people say they get [the museum], they get me. It's a way of expressing myself. I am not a collector. I'm a preservationist. I'm a conservationist."

The excitement of unveiling and the thrill of the chase are what keep Wolfson on the move. He just returned from several weeks in St. Petersburg and Moscow. He says he loses interest in a piece when he settles on the price.

"I have no sense of ownership," he said. Wolfson donated the institution to FIU in 1998 after extensive negotiations. FIU will support the museum financially. "I never wanted to hoard any of it."

This substantial donation to the Florida University system is characteristic of Wolfson's generosity and priority of education. The Wolfsonian publishes a scholarly journal, "The Journal of Decorative and Propaganda Arts," a quarterly, and also offers a competitive fellowship program where scholars from around the globe are invited to use the Wolfsonian's facility and collection for their research.

"It's great. It's an amazing place," Susan Taylor, director of the Princeton Art Museum said. "It has huge potential."

"I think it's one of the premier institutions of its kind in the country and, given its relative newness, it has been extremely active in terms of producing scholarship that reflects its mission and priorities. Micky's very committed to advancing the scholarship in that area. Princeton is lucky to have his support," Taylor said.

In addition to the new wing of the Art Museum, Wolfson donated a 15th century bronze Javanese lamp.

Through his many donations and active involvement in the advisory boards of the Art Museum and the Department of Comparative Literature, the former Little Hall resident and Key and Seal Club member has many friends spread across the campus.

Professor of Comparative Literature Robert Fagles spoke of Wolfson as "one of the most companionable people" he has ever met.

"We had a wonderful time in Miami Beach," Fagles said of a not-so-recent trip. "I will never forget a small ride on a steamboat." Fagles recalled "long blasts on this wonderful steam whistle until the very waters reverberated." And "Micky was standing at the helm of this little put put drawing on the pull with a great smile spread across his face."

Wright, who introduced Fagles to Wolfson at a banquet, said, "Micky is one of the most unbelievable connectors of people."

As his work at the Wolfsonian museum proves, he is also an unbelievable connector of themes and ideas. His interest, he said, "was forged through education."