Inauguration Next Week of Expanded Tel Aviv Museum Aided by Donations from U.s., Uk

Tel Aviv is preparing for Israel’s biggest cultural event in years–the inauguration next Monday of the expanded Tel Aviv Museum where some of the greatest artistic masterpieces of the 19th and 20th centuries will be on display for the first time under a single roof. President Zalman Shazar, Premier Golda Meir, and members of the Cabinet and the Knesset will attend along with some 4500 other invited guests including philanthropists from the United States and Britain who helped expand the 35-year-old museum to its present proportions. They will view paintings by such masters as Matise, Derain, Modigliani, Soutine, Juan Gris, Leger, Dufy, Picasso, Chagall and the sculptor, Jacques Lipchitz. Collections of outstanding Israeli artists will also be on display along with contemporary French tapestries and an exhibition of art and science devoted mainly to the optical features of art. The original Tel Aviv Museum was established in 1936 by the British High Commissioner for Palestine, Sir Arthur Wauchope. Twelve years later it was the scene of the proclamation of Israel’s independence.

The Helena Rubenstein pavilion was added, a gift by the late cosmetician. But further expansion was required. It was made possible by a half million dollar gift from an American donor who insisted on remaining anonymous. He will attend the opening on Monday. Another major donor expected to be present is Joseph Meyerhoff of Baltimore, who was responsible for the Museum’s Meyerhoff Hall. There is another hall named in honor of Mr. and Mrs. Simon Jagblum of New York. A Mr. Hoft of London and Mrs. Labotta of New York, contributed to the construction of smaller exhibition halls. The new museum stands on a 125,000 square foot site in the northeastern outskirts of Tel Aviv where it will be part of a new cultural and civic center. The low-lying building of abstract design contains 130,000 square feet of floorspace on three levels reached by ramps. It contains several galleries, an auditorium and a lecture and film hall. The building and its adjacent 57,000 square foot sculptured garden was designed by Israeli architects I. Yashar and D. Eitan. They were aided by an international consulting committee of Italian and American architects.