J. P. Morgan amassed one of the worlds greatest art collections, mostly European works between the Fall of the Roman Empire through the Renaissance. The type of work was endless from painting to sculpture to relics to grave goods to furniture, tapestries, gems and so on. By the time he died in 1913 half his fortune was in art, 60 million dollars. He collected not only individual pieces but other collections, many dozens. He donated most of it to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, of which he was president and was a major force in its establishment.

This is a coffee-table picture book containing about 30 pages of text and 100s of pictures of some of his most important works. It's not very in-depth and a quick read but for the right price it's a pretty book and, printed in Japan, it is of high quality material. One leaves it with a feeling of seeing a random pile of stuff, which is exactly what many critics of Morgans collection have expressed.

Morgan was a collector since childhood, the only difference between him and a beer can collector is the price of his toys - like all manic collectors he hoped to find immortality through material things - remember Citizen Kane and Rosebud - we all die and the lesson of Morgan is "you can't take it with you". ( )