Mourning for Edmund de Unger - internationally renowned collector of Islamic art
Press release from 02/15/2011
Edmund de Unger, whose private collection in the field of Islamic art, known internationally as the Keir Collection, achieved worldwide significance, died on 25 January 2011 in Ham near London at the age of 92. Edmund de Unger was laid to rest today in Richmond / London with great sympathy from international personalities.
Edmund de Unger's life story is moving and emotional. As the child of a family that was important in the cultural life of Budapest, he studied in Kiel and Oxford, where he received his doctorate in 1940. Rooted in the German-Hungarian history of Pest, after returning to his native Hungary he had to witness how these roots were torn up by National Socialist barbarism. After the war, the moment of new beginnings was short-lived: his newly founded private hotel was nationalised.
De Unger then emigrated to England. There he studied law under difficult living conditions until he was able to work as a lawyer. From 1954, he worked at the Colonial Office before moving to Ghana as a Crown Councillor, where he remained as an adviser to the Ministry of Economic Affairs after independence. These were formative years for him - also as a collector.
In 1962, he returned to England and moved into a house in Wimbledon called "Keir", after which he named his high-calibre collection the "Keir Collection". However, Edmund de Unger was not only an outstanding collector of Islamic art, but also a recognised connoisseur and collector of European art, especially Renaissance art.
In 2009, Edmund de Unger presented the Museum of Islamic Art at the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin with an important loan of 1,500 works of various genres of Islamic art and decorative arts from his collection, which is the largest and most important private collection in this field worldwide. A preselection of the precious works was on display in March 2007 under the theme "Collector's Happiness" at the Museum of Islamic Art in the Pergamon Museum. Edmund de Unger's son Richard de Unger is closely associated with the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin as Honorary Curator of the de Unger Collection.
The Staatliche Museen zu Berlin - Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz commemorate Edmund de Unger with admiration, deep friendship and gratitude. Condolences are being sent to his family in London today. On behalf of the National Museums in Berlin, Director General Prof. Dr Michael Eissenhauer and Dr Stefan Weber, Director of the Berlin Museum of Islamic Art, expressed their condolences and conveyed the official condolences of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation to Edmund de Ungers' family.
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