For Malcolm Rogers, the Ann and Graham Gund Director of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA), visiting Japan in mid-April had a special resonance. The MFA this year celebrates its 15th anniversary of ties with what is not only its very first sister museum, but also its sole sister museum in Asia: the Nagoya/Boston Museum of Fine Arts (N/BMFA).
Through the partnership, which is planned to run until 2019, the MFA has loaned to the N/BMFA some of the world's finest cultural artifacts from its vast and renowned collection. Such works span genres and ages — from ancient Egyptian art to the N/BMFA's current exhibition of 19th-century European paintings.
"We managed to bring it (the collection) to audiences who found something new to appreciate and understand," Rogers said. "It changes people's perceptions of art in one way or another."