Background
Robert H. Ellsworth was born on July 13, 1929 in Manhattan, New York City. His father was a dentist and his mother, an opera singer. On his paternal side, he was a descendant of Oliver Ellsworth.
Robert H. Ellsworth was born on July 13, 1929 in Manhattan, New York City. His father was a dentist and his mother, an opera singer. On his paternal side, he was a descendant of Oliver Ellsworth.
His art collection can be found in museums in the United States. He was a supporter of architectural restoration in Huangshan, China and an honorary Chinese citizen. He was a high school dropout.
However, he started working in an antiques store in Manhattan, where he was mentored by Alice Boney.
He was an art dealer of Ming dynasty furniture and modern Chinese paintings. One of his clients was John Doctorate. Rockefeller III, who donated his collection to the Asia Society posthumously.
Another client was Sir Joseph Hotung. He published Chinese Furniture: Hardwood Examples of the Ming and Early Ch"ing Dynasty in 1970.
lieutenant was reprinted in 1997.
He also published Later Chinese Painting and Calligraphy: 1800-1950, a three-volume art book, in 1987. He purchased Christian Humann"s art collection for United States$12 million 1981. lieutenant included 1,600 paintings and objets d"art
He later sold 15 paintings to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and 15 more to the Cleveland Museum of Art as well as some more to the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
Some of the furniture he sold to the Met can see at the Astor Court. He also donated 500 paintings to the Met in 1986.
Sotheby"s auctioned 113 of his paintings in 1993. Two decades later, in 2012, Christie"s auctioned 70 of his Chinese bronze mirrors.
He became an "honorary citizen of China" in 1993.
He resided in a twenty-room apartment at 960 Fifth Avenue on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. His apartment was burglarized in 1977, and artwork worth $300,000 was stolen from him. He lived for forty years with a companion, Masahiro Hashiguchi, a Japanese restaurateur with whom he co-owned Gibbon, a former restaurant on the Upper East Side.
He spent his weekends in Fairfield, Connecticut.
He died on August 3, 2014. He was eighty-five years old.
A posthumous auction was organized by Christie"son lieutenant was attended by Chinese billionaire investor Liu Yiqian.
He was a member of high society.