S ometimes the cutting-edge is five years old. Take the current exhibition at the Mori Art Museum, "The Kaleidoscopic Eye: Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary Collection." Featuring some of the best of what the contemporary art world has to offer, by the time it's made it to the museum, the art world has already moved on. But audiences still need to catch up, and Francesca von Habsburg, the collector behind Thyssen-Bornemisza, wants to help lead them there.
"In the '80s when I was punk, we were hanging out with all these punk musicians. I had a conversation with one who was in The Sex Pistols not long ago, and I asked, 'When was the last time you really really felt alive?' " says von Habsburg. "And he said, 'Well, (imitates accent) when we was in the Pistols. . . . We were on a mission,' and I said, 'I didn't quite see you as missionaries (laughs).' But he replied, 'We was on a mission; we were going to change the musical world.' And they did.
"And I thought that was so cool, how he described it, because I felt like that's what I am doing."