Such was the passion Paul and Ruth Tishman brought to collecting.

The Tishmans acquired their first works of African art-an ivory figure and a bronze mask from the Benin kingdom in the late 1950S. Over the next 2o plus years, the Tishmans built one of the great private collections of African art that included the major art traditions found throughout the continent.  The Tishmans desire to share the ar with as many people as possible led to the 1984 sale of the collec-don to the Walt Disney Company, who proved to be generous stewards.making the collection avail-able for exhibition and pub-hcation. In the autunm of 2oo5, the Walt Disney World Co., a subsidiary of the Walt Disney Company, donated the Walt Disney-Tishman African Art Collection to the National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, continuing the tradition of sharing the rich history of African art and culture with current and future generations.