Mitchell “Micky” Wolfson. Jr.
Mitchell “Micky” Wolfson, Jr., art collector and museum founder, is dedicated to the research, preservation, and education of material culture dating from 1850 to 1950 at The Wolfsonian–Florida International University in Miami Beach and its sister museum, The Wolfsoniana in Genoa, Italy. In 1997, he founded The Wolfsonian–FIU on Miami Beach with a collection comprising approximately 200,000 objects from 1850 to 1950—the height of the Industrial Revolution through the aftermath of the Second World War. His donation led to the creation of the fourth-largest university art collection in the U.S. and the single largest gift to the State of Florida. A Miami Beach native, he established the Wolfsonian Foundation in 1986 and began publishing The Journal of Decorative and Propaganda Art. He established the Wolfsonian International Council, an entity that supports an exchange of scholarship and exhibitions between The Wolfsonian–FIU and The Wolfsoniana. In 2007, Mr. Wolfson was awarded the 11th Premio Rotondi ai salvatori dell'arte (Rotondi Prize to Art Rescuers) for his lifelong commitment to the preservation of art and architecture, as well as the 2007 Stewardship of Modernism award by the Russell Wright Design Center in New York. A trustee for the Mitchell Wolfson Sr. Foundation and the Mitchell Wolfson Family Foundation, he is also a member of the International Council of the Museum of Modern Art and serves on the Executive Planning Committee of the Bard Graduate Center: Decorative Arts, Design History, Material Culture. A graduate of Princeton University, Mr. Wolfson remains on the advisory council of the university’s Comparative Literature department. He received his master’s degree in international relations from the Paul N. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University. Mr. Wolfson divides his time between Miami, Paris, and Genoa. Through his lifelong dedication to preserving and celebrating material culture, Mitchell “Micky” Wolfson, Jr. has proven to be a true visionary—building cultural bridges across continents and generations for the enduring benefit of the global community.