Sherman Emery Lee (April 19, 1918 – July 9, 2008) was an American academic, writer,

art historian Art history is the study of aesthetic objects and visual expression in historical and stylistic context. Traditionally, the discipline of art history emphasized painting, drawing, sculpture, architecture, ceramics and decorative arts; yet today ...

and expert on

Asian art The history of Asian art includes a vast range of arts from various cultures, regions, and religions across the continent of Asia. The major regions of Asia include Central, East, South, Southeast, and West Asia. Central Asian art primarily c ...

. He was Director of the

Cleveland Museum of Art The Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA) is an art museum in Cleveland, Ohio, located in the Wade Park District, in the University Circle neighborhood on the city's east side. Internationally renowned for its substantial holdings of Asian and Egyptian ...

from 1958 to 1983.Weber, Bruce
"Sherman Lee, Who Led Cleveland Museum, Dies at 90,"
''New York Times.'' July 11, 2008. Lee earned his B.A. and M.A. at

American University The American University (AU or American) is a private federally chartered research university in Washington, D.C. Its main campus spans 90 acres (36 ha) on Ward Circle, mostly in the Spring Valley neighborhood of Northwest D.C. AU was charte ...

in Washington, D.C. He was awarded his PhD at

Western Reserve University Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...

in 1941.Monuments Men Foundation
Monuments Men> Lee, Sherman E.
/ref> Lee was "a renowned expert on Asian art." According to Philippe de Montebello, Lee will be remembered for "sensational acquisitions that transformed the Cleveland Museum of Art in all fields."

Career

In 1941, Lee was named Curator of Far Eastern Art at the

Detroit Institute of Arts The Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA), located in Midtown Detroit, Michigan, has one of the list of largest art museums, largest and most significant art collections in the United States. With over 100 galleries, it covers with a major renovation a ...

. His museum career was interrupted by military service in

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. He returned to the United States in 1948. He was the Associate Director of the

Seattle Art Museum The Seattle Art Museum (commonly known as SAM) is an art museum located in Seattle, Washington, United States. It operates three major facilities: its main museum in downtown Seattle; the Seattle Asian Art Museum (SAAM) in Volunteer Park on Cap ...

and he taught at the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seattle a ...

. In 1952, Lee began work at the

as Chief Curator of Oriental Art. He was named Director in 1958, and served in this capacity until 1983. He advised Mr. and Mrs.

John D. Rockefeller John Davison Rockefeller Sr. (July 8, 1839 – May 23, 1937) was an American business magnate and philanthropist. He has been widely considered the wealthiest American of all time and the richest person in modern history. Rockefeller was ...

on building their collection of Asian art. After retiring from the Cleveland Museum of Art in 1983, Lee became an adjunct professor of art history at the

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States ...

World War II

Lieutenant Sherman Lee was activated from the

United States Naval Reserve The United States Navy Reserve (USNR), known as the United States Naval Reserve from 1915 to 2005, is the Reserve Component (RC) of the United States Navy. Members of the Navy Reserve, called Reservists, are categorized as being in either the Sele ...

during World War II. His naval career took a turn when he was transferred in 1946 to Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives (MFAA) in Japan. When he was discharged from the military, he continued working as a civilian in Tokyo. From 1946 to 1948, he was a civilian adviser to the staff of Gen.

Douglas MacArthur Douglas MacArthur (26 January 18805 April 1964) was an American military leader who served as General of the Army for the United States, as well as a field marshal to the Philippine Army. He had served with distinction in World War I, was C ...

(

Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers was the title held by General Douglas MacArthur during the United States-led Allied occupation of Japan following World War II. It issued SCAP Directives (alias SCAPIN, SCAP Index Number) to the Japanese government, aiming to suppress its "milita ...

, also known by the acronym SCAP) on the cataloging, preserving and protection of Japanese artworks. Among those serving with Lee at SCAP headquarters in Tokyo were Patrick Lennox TierneyConsulate General of Japan, Los Angeles
Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Neck Ribbon (3rd class).
and

Laurence Sickman Laurence Chalfant Stevens Sickman (1907–1988) was an American academic, art historian, sinologist and Director of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City. Education As a high school student, Sickman became interested in Japanese and C ...

Quote

Speaking of his service with the Monuments Men, Lee said:

We were responsible for protection of registered cultural property ... We were responsible for national parks ... We were responsible for the encouragement of the living artists and ... the democratization of Japanese museums to see that there was evenhanded fair play.

Legacy

According to Philippe de Montebello, director of the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

in New York, Sherman Lee "carried a lot of weight in the community of museum directors. He bought in all fields, his own particularly brilliantly, but in many different fields. He really transformed the Cleveland museum from a regional museum to a major global museum."

Honors

Order of the Sacred Treasure The is a Japanese order, established on 4 January 1888 by Emperor Meiji as the Order of Meiji. Originally awarded in eight classes (from 8th to 1st, in ascending order of importance), since 2003 it has been awarded in six classes, the lowest ...

, Japan. *

Légion d'honneur The National Order of the Legion of Honour (french: Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur), formerly the Royal Order of the Legion of Honour ('), is the highest French order of merit, both military and civil. Established in 1802 by Napoleon ...

, France. *

Charles Lang Freer medal The Charles Lang Freer medal was established in 1956 by the Smithsonian Institution in honor of Charles Lang Freer, the founder of the Freer collection. The medal is conferred intermittently, honoring distinguished career contributions made by s ...

, 1983.

Selected works

In a statistical overview derived from writings by and about Sherman Lee,

OCLC OCLC, Inc., doing business as OCLC, See also: is an American nonprofit cooperative organization "that provides shared technology services, original research, and community programs for its membership and the library community at large". It was ...

WorldCat WorldCat is a union catalog that itemizes the collections of tens of thousands of institutions (mostly libraries), in many countries, that are current or past members of the OCLC global cooperative. It is operated by OCLC, Inc. Many of the OCL ...

encompasses roughly 100+ works in 300+ publications in 8 languages and 14,000+ library holdings. WorldCat IdentitiesLee, Sherman E.
/ref> * ''Chinese Landscape Painting'' (1954) * ''Japanese Decorative Style'' (1961) * ''A History of Far Eastern Art'' (1964) * ''Ancient Cambodian Sculpture'' (1969) * ''The Colors of Ink: Chinese Paintings and Related Ceramics from the Cleveland Museum of Art'' (1974) * ''The Genius of Japanese Design'' (1981) * ''Reflections of Reality in Japanese Art'' (1983) * ''Past, Present, East and West'' (1983)

Notes

References

* American Commission for the Protection and Salvage of Artistic and Historic Monuments in War Areas. (1946). ''Report.'' Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office. *Giuffrida, Noelle.
Separating Sheep from Goats: Sherman E. Lee and Chinese Art Collecting in Postwar America
'. Oakland, CA: University of California Press, 2018. * Lee, Sherman E. (1997). "My Work in Japan: Arts and Monuments 1946–48," in ''The Confusion Era: Art and Culture of Japan during the Allied Occupation 1945–52,'' ed. Mark Sandler. Washington, D.C.:

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...

. * Nicholas, Lynn H. (1995)
''The Rape of Europa: The Fate of Europe’s Teasures in the Third Reich and the Second World War.''
New York:

Vintage Books Vintage Books is a trade paperback publishing imprint of Penguin Random House originally established by Alfred A. Knopf in 1954. The company was purchased by Random House in April 1960, and a British division was set up in 1990. After Random Hous ...

.
OCLC 32531154
* U.S. Department of State. ''Foreign Relations of the United States'' (FRUS) B. This is a publication of the State Department that serves as a key finding aid because the documents selected for printing include the source file designation.**__________________. (1944). "Interest of the United States in measures for the protection and salvage of artistic and historic monuments in war areas," ''FRUS.'' (Vol. II, pp. 1031–1068. **__________________. (1945). "Interest of the United States in measures for the protection and salvage of artistic and historic monuments in war areas," ''FRUS.'' (Vol. II, pp. 933–957.

External links

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcasting, public broadcaster and Non-commercial activity, non-commercial, Terrestrial television, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly fu ...

(

Oregon Public Broadcasting Oregon Public Broadcasting (OPB) is the primary television and radio public broadcasting network for most of the U.S. state of Oregon as well as southern Washington. OPB consists of five full-power television stations, dozens of VHF or UHF tra ...

)
"The Rape of Europa."
2006 film, aired November 24, 2008 *

California Digital Library The California Digital Library (CDL) was founded by the University of California in 1997. Under the leadership of then UC President Richard C. Atkinson, the CDL's original mission was to forge a better system for scholarly information management a ...

(CDL)
Ruth and Sherman Lee Institute for Japanese Art Collection
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lee, Sherman E. 1918 births 2008 deaths Harvard University faculty Art and cultural repatriation Directors of museums in the United States Writers from Cleveland Monuments men