Proud Moment

Washington's 122-year-old Smithsonian Institution has often been called "the nation's attic." Over the years, public-spirited citizens have given it a little bit of practically everything, from the Hope Diamond to, inevitably, some art. But museumgoers in search of the art had a hard time finding it in a few cramped galleries behind the stuffed elephants. Under the leadership of Secretary Dillon Ripley, the Smithsonian has recently been cleaning out its attic. Last week, with a black-tie gala for 2,300 guests led by Lyndon and Lady Bird Johnson, the Smithsonian's paintings and sculpture, now formally known as the National Collection of Fine Arts, moved into a home of their own.

New showcase for the collection is the onetime U.S. Government Patent Office at 8th and G Streets, a neoclassical building designed in the 1830s. Freshly renovated at a cost of more than $6,000,000, the new museum next October will also include The National Portrait Gallery in its south wing. The collection can use all the space it has. Among its 11,000 pictures, sculptures and objets d'art are 445 Indian paintings by George Catlin, 18 by Albert Pinkham Ryder, 15 to 25 apiece by such U.S. impressionists as Hassam and Twachtman, plus a wax-company collection of 102 contemporary works.

"This is a proud moment," the President said at the inauguration. He would not go so far as to say he felt like a proud father (Lady Bird had said "that would be boastful"), or grandfather ("some people think I already talk too much about my grandson"). Instead he billed himself as "a proud uncle." Explained L.B.J.: "You all know how an uncle is. He doesn't visit often, but he likes relations to do well. I won't be remembered as a patron of the arts, but I should be delighted to be known as an uncle of the arts."

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