World-renowned art collector David Owsley visited Ball State University's Museum of Art Monday to deliver a speech on his love of art collecting.
The speech was the 19th annual Edmund F. Petty Memorial Lecture, which was donated by the Ball Brother's endowment, Carl Shafer, associate director of the Museum of Art, said.
Owsley is one of the museum's biggest benefactors and has contributed more than 1,500 works of art, Shafer said.
"He is very involved with the museum," he said. "He gives a major gift every year."
Museum Director Peter Bloom said Owsley was rated one of the United States' 100 most important art collectors by Art and Antiques Magazine.
"His importance is borne out by the number of times you see his name under works [as the donator] as you walk through the museum," Bloom said.
Owsley is the grandson of Frank C. Ball and has been a major donator to the museum since 1963, Shafer said.
Born in Dallas, Owsley spent most of his formative years in Europe, largely because his father was a foreign diplomat, Owsley said in his presentation. He attended Muncie's Burris High School and received his bachelor's degree from Harvard University, he said.
Bloom said Owsley also has been awarded an honorary degree from Ball State.
Owsley has spent much of his life traveling the world in search of rare works of art. In his presentation, he chronicled several of the works and the stories of how he obtained them.
Many of the photographs shown during the presentation were of works Owsley had donated or loaned to the museum. Others showed art from his New York apartment, which he said was so cluttered with books and art that he was running out of living space.
One story Owsley told was of his grandfather's pursuit of several works of art that were being auctioned off in 1918. His grandfather bought 79 of the pieces and eventually donated them to the Ball State Museum of Art.
Another story involved one of Owsley's first pieces. He was in Mexico, and he made a deal with his travel mate to visit one historic place for every day they spent fishing. On one of these trips to an ancient Aztec site, Owsley traded with a young boy to obtain a sculpture.
Owsley said he enjoyed sharing his art with the university because he wanted students to be able to experience culture from all over the world. He also said he wanted art history to be more integrated into the curriculum.
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