Open AccessA SEAMAN, DIPLOMAT, AND COLLECTOR: ANDRZEJ WAWRZYNIAK 1931–2020
Author(s) -
Joanna Wasilewska
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
muzealnictwo
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.101
H-Index - 1
eISSN - 2391-4815
pISSN - 0464-1086
DOI - 10.5604/01.3001.0014.8756
Subject(s) - tribute , archipelago , malay , personality , history , perception , geography , visual arts , ancient history , archaeology , genealogy , art , psychology , social psychology , neuroscience , philosophy , linguistics
In the tribute the personality of AndrzejWawrzyniak (1931–2020), the founder and long-standingDirector of the Asia and Pacific Museum in Warsaw (bearinghis name since 2017), is presented. Working as a diplomatin Indonesia in the 1960s, he amassed a sizeable collectionof artefacts from the Malay Archipelago, large evenif compared to similar ones worldwide, which allowed toset up a new museum in Warsaw in 1973. The Museumsoon extended the sphere of its interests, today boastingcollections from almost the whole of continental Asia anda substantial part of Oceania. For 40 years the collectionwas shaped mainly by the collecting choices of its founderand surprisingly numerous donations. As a result, a uniquecollection was formed, documenting a wide range ofcultures, at the same time bearing testimony to its author’spersonality. Furthermore, the issues of the perceptionof the Asia and Pacific Museum as well as of Asia’s culturesare discussed in the paper, and so are later alterations of thisperception. Additionally, the questions of selection criteriaand evaluation of museum objects are tackled.