UBC Press Kenneth Thomson the Collector and the Thomson Collection at the Art Gallery of Ontario book Paperback 128 pages

Ken Thomson was no mere trophy gatherer. A man of passionatecommitment and of wide-ranging cultural curiosity, the late LordThomson of Fleet (1923–2006) began a half-century of collectingin 1953 and continued to the very end of his life.The Thomson Collection has drawn the respect of museum curatorsworldwide. In terms of quantity and quality, the Collection’sbody of Canadian art has no equal; and a number of works, principalamong them The Massacre of the Innocents, the masterpiece ofRubens’s early maturity, are of truly international significance.As the most important private art collection in Canada, it will hugelyextend the holdings of the Art Gallery of Ontario. Amongst its Europeanworks is the fabulous 12th-century Malmesbury reliquary casket, anextraordinary selection of medieval ivories, and a fine group ofportrait miniatures. A large and varied group of ship models is anintriguing facet of the Collection.