Art 101: The Extraordinary Journey of JL Arthur Wiener, from a Ceramic Mug to a Ceramic Museum & Chihuly Too

Right after college, Arthur Wiener, born and raised in New York in a working-class family, boarded an Icelandic Airlines flight with Fromer’s Five Dollars a Day and landed in Belgium. He then made his way via the White Cliffs of Dover to London. There he spotted a ceramic mug with a Jewish star in the window of a curio shop. The shopkeeper claimed that the mug was a tribute to Merlin the Magician whom the shopkeeper said was Jewish. Arthur was the son of Orthodox Holocaust survivors. Arthur remembered his heritage.

His journey began. While building his career as a real estate developer who owned and managed residential properties, Arthur became fascinated by the idea of creating art with fire. He visited galleries, artists and auctions, in particular, Bonhams London, known for historical British ceramics. He created collections of major British ceramics.

The idea of creating art from fire also led him to Dale Chihuly, who put modern glass sculpture on the map. Before Chihuly worked, glass was primarily functional, that is, a bowl, a plate or a drinking glass. Arthur now has one of the largest collections of Chihuly sculpture in the world.

Lucky ceramics, lucky glass! Arthur was a force to be reckoned with.

Soon Arthur was out of space. What to do? As a lover of the arts, he understood that art is meant to be shared. An artist creates for posterity, not for an individual collector. So, of course Arthur created a museum to share the artist’s legacy and Arthur’s love of the arts. A truly selfless endeavor.

The first museum was in Davie, Florida. The current museum WMODA, Wiener Museum of Decorative Arts, is in Hollywood, Florida. Recently, Chihuly’s associate visited WMODA to establish Arthur’s collection as one of eight permanent Chihuly sites world wide.

But Arthur is still not finished.

Of late, Arthur visited the city of Lake Worth, Florida known for its arts community. They were welcoming and ready to talk about a proposed $60,000,000 residential and museum complex housing the Wiener collections. Chihuly is expected to design the large window on the façade of the museum.

And that’s the rest of the story. A true lover of the arts who, unlike many collectors who have the ability to share their art but do not do so, Arthur will continue to create a space in Palm Beach County for every man, woman and child to visit for generations to come.

Bravo, Arthur.