Arthur Lövkovits (1863–1935)

Museum founder

Regarding his ancestry Löfkovits was neither a Debrecener nor a cívis, but the son of a Nagyvárad merchant-teacher. By the end of the century he had turned his Piac Street jewellery shop, opened in 1882 with the help of his degree in commerce, into one of the most prestigious companies in the Monarchy. His shop, equipped to manufacture jewels to be fitted on ceremonial Hungarian attire for the millennial celebrations, turned out quality pieces. As a person he was trustworthy, so he managed to establish an extensive clientele of aristocrats. Through selling ornamental pieces his own collection soon grew, too, several items of which he donated to the Reformed College and the National Museum. Later he obtained permits to carry out digs as well, provided he would turn in the findings. Wishing to put some of that towards the public good, in 1902 he offered all 1640 pieces of his collection of old medals, coins and weapons to help found an independent museum in Debrecen. Based on this donation the town museum was opened in 1905, with voluntary patron Löfkovits appointed as director for life without remuneration. Twenty years later, however, Frigyes Déri’s new donation slightly outshone the virtues of the museum’s founder. Löfkovits’ gratitude to the town of Debrecen remained unrequited: he did not even get an honorary title in the newly established museum, even though he was doubtlessly the only director of Debrecen’s museum ‘whose survival did not depend on the museum, but quite the other way round’.