Straus, Percy Selden 1876-1944

On December 11, 1944 the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston received the bequest of paintings and sculptures known as the Edith A. and Percy S. Straus Collection. Comprised of over eighty works of art, the collection is dominated by European paintings dating from the thirteenth to the nineteenth centuries and includes significant examples of Flemish, Sienese, Florentine, Ferrarese, Venetian, German, and English origin. Though the Strauses were permanent residents of New York, they chose to place their collection in Houston in the conviction that it was time for a body of early and important paintings to be made available to the public in the southwestern United States. The Strauses acquired most of their pieces in Europe and retained them for private display in their New York City home until the collection was transferred, intact, to the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, after the death of Mr. Straus. Percy S. Straus was lifetime Chairman of the Board of R. H. Macy and Company, New York, and a well-known philanthropist and collector. He died on April 6, 1944.

From the description of Edith A. and Percy S. Straus collection: papers, 1917-1958. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 122632883