Mitchell Wolfson, Jr.
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Mitchell Wolfson, Jr. (1939 - ) is a businessman, collector, philanthropist, and founder of the Wolfsonian Museum in Miami Beach, Florida, and Nervi, Italy.
Art collector and museum founder Mitchell "Micky" Wolfson Jr. continues to explore his unique vision through ongoing initiatives and educational projects in South Florida and Genoa, Italy. Dedicated to the support and promotion of research, preservation and education, Wolfson is developing new resources to further his investigation of modern material culture. In downtown Miami, Wolfson's new Study Centre provides access to an evolving collection of decorative, design and propaganda arts of the period 1885 to 1945. In Italy, the newly inaugurated Wolfsoniana Museum exhibits elements from his collection in Genoa, comprising more than 18,000 works documenting the period through works on paper, paintings, sculpture, furniture and decorative objects.
Raised in Miami Beach, Wolfson gained an early appreciation for the built environment and its relationship to cultural factors. Extensive travel and work overseas provided him with opportunities to amass an extensive collection of British, Dutch, German, Japanese, Italian and American design. In 1986 he established The Wolfsonian Foundation, a research center and museum in Miami Beach and began publishing The Journal of Decorative and Propaganda Art, an internationally acclaimed and award-winning publication dedicated to fostering scholarship in late nineteenth and early twentieth century design arts. In 1997 he donated his collection, estimated at 80,000 objects, and the state-of-the-art museum to Florida International University. The Wolfsonian-FIU continues to be a respected research center and museum with an ambitious program of exhibitions, publications, educational programs and scholarship.
Wolfson also co-authored the well-received Miami Beach: Blueprint of an Eden with artist Michele Oka Doner. Published in 2005, the book is a personal portrayal of Miami Beach from the 1920s through the 1960s.
Wolfson is president of The Wolfson Initiative, Washington Storage Company and the Novecento Corporation. He sits on many educational, civic and philanthropic boards including The Wolfsonian-FIU Advisory Board and the Florida International University Board of Directors. Wolfson is a Trustee for the Mitchell Wolfson Senior Foundation that supports educational and health issues and the Mitchell Wolfson Family Foundation the supports the Audubon House and Gardens in Key West, Florida. He is a member of the International Council of the Museum of Modern Art, the International Council of Les Arts Decoratifs in Paris, France and a past member of the American Friends of the Louvre.
A graduate of Princeton University, Wolfson remains on the advisory council of Princeton’s Comparative Literature department. He also received a Master's degree in International Relations from Paul N. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University and continues to serve on their advisory council.
Wolfson continues to hone his vision and expand his influence, in the United States as well as in Europe. Dedicated to promoting dialogue and the exchange of ideas, he recently donated his Italian collection to the Fondazione Cristoforo Colomobo in Genoa, Italy. The City of Genoa has opened the Wolfsoniana Museum and a research centre in their Palazzo Ducale. Wolfson has also established the Wolfsonian International Council, an entity that will support an exchange of scholarship and exhibitions between Miami's Wolfsonian-FIU and Genoa's Wolfsoniana.
