Liechtenstein is the kind of place that philatelists and tax lawyers know best. Although an insignificant dot on the map, it has its own set of stamps and its small size allows it to offer tax advantages to thousands of holding companies. The latest exhibition at the National Art Center Tokyo (NACT) now wants to extend the fame of the petty statelet to a third group — Tokyo's art lovers.
But "Masterworks from the Collections of the Prince of Liechtenstein" is not just about the little Alpine principality lodged in between Switzerland and Austria. If it were, the art would probably include rustic cuckoo clocks and paintings of cows with bells. The tale of the principality's ruling family is much more cosmopolitan than that. It is closely interwoven with the history of the Hapsburg Emperors and the grand city of Vienna, with members of the family serving as high-ranking generals, ambassadors and advisers in the Holy Roman Empire.
The art collection of the present prince of Liechtenstein, Prince Hans-Adam II, whose personal fortune is estimated at around $5 billion, includes works from both Vaduz, the principality's tiny capital, and Vienna, where the former palace of the Liechtenstein family is now an elegant art museum especially noted for its collections of Rubens and Van Dyck.