In 1956, Anna C. Hoyt donated 105 Old Master and modern prints to Vanderbilt University. In the late 1960s, four further donations took the total number of Asian pieces at Vanderbilt to a modest seven. Today the collection contains more than 2,000 pieces from Bhutan, Burma, China, India, Japan, Korea, Tibet, Thailand and Vietnam, making it one of the finest collections of its type in the Southeast. How has Vanderbilt come to possess such a treasure-house of Asian art in a few short decades? The story is one of chance encounters, delightful coincidences and serendipitous acquisitions.

East Asian art East Asian art