This is definitely a post I’d rather not write. But since it was just a few days ago when I told the story of former museum director Edmund “Ted” Pillsbury’s short tenure as U.S. director of the French Regional and American Museum Exchange, I feel duty bound.
His death on March 25, at age 66, has been ruled a suicide. It was not a heart attack, as I orignally reported here. The Dallas Morning News was the source of the original obit, and is also the source for the update (here).
Pillsbury was director of the Kimbell Art Museum for 18 years, during which time he purchased many masterpieces. As The New York Times obit said:
Among the paintings Mr. Pillsbury acquired were “Portrait of Don Pedro de Barberana,” an unusually large piece by the 17th-century Spanish artist Diego Velázquez; “The Cardsharps,” a seminal work by Caravaggio from the 1590s; a 1906 Picasso, “Nude Combing Her Hair,” “L’Asie,” a 1946 oil by Matisse; and art by Fra Angelico, Titian, Tintoretto, Rubens, Cezanne and Mondrian.
Pillsbury was a scion of the Pillsbury flour company.
Sadly, when I spoke to him in mid-March, he told me he wanted to do some writing about his life.
My thanks to Lindsay Pollock for telling me about the updated news about Pillsbury’s death in the Dallas paper.
Photo Credit: Courtesy Heritage Auctions