Frick Collection director to speak at Museum of Fine Arts

The Frick Collection in New York is one of the most exquisite museums in the world, housed in the mansion of industrialist Henry Clay Frick, who died in 1919, and filled with old master paintings and first-class decorative arts, most from the 18th century.

The Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg has a special connection to the Frick. It was a favorite of MFA's founder, Margaret Acheson Stuart, and the original 1965 building was in part inspired by the Frick at her request.

So it's fitting that Ian Wardropper, the Frick's director, will be at MFA on Thursday for a lecture about the Frick's decorative arts collection (which, believe me, is gorgeous). There's another connection, too: Wardropper and Kent Lydecker, MFA's director, were colleagues at the Metropolitan Museum of Art for many years. The museum is at 255 Beach Drive NE, St. Petersburg. The lecture begins at 6:30 p.m. and is free with museum admission: adults $17, seniors $15, students with ID $10. (727) 896-2667 or fine-arts.org.

Lennie Bennett, Times art critic