Bohemian Rhapsody

Reuniting the Stein family's peerless collection

By Richard Lacayo Monday, June 06, 2011
    • Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society, New York; Courtesy of San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

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    Michael and Sarah lost the cream of their Matisse collection when they lent 19 pictures to an exhibition in Germany on the eve of World War I and couldn't retrieve them after the fighting started. They continued collecting on a more modest scale, taking their treasures with them when they returned in 1935 to Palo Alto, Calif. Gertrude died in France in 1946, leaving her lover Alice B. Toklas to superintend the remains of her collection. Matisse and Picasso had long since become the two great rockets of 20th century art. The Stein apartments had been their launchpads.

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