Supporter Story: Henry Ott-Hansen

Honorary trustee Henry Ott-Hansen has loved art since his days as a Yale undergraduate, where he was a student worker at the Yale University Art Gallery—but it was a trip to Italy with the Cleveland Museum of Art in fall 2023 that inspired him to make the gift of a lifetime. 

Exploring Florence and Rome with his daughter, Sarah Ott-Hansen; Director William M. Griswold, who specializes in the drawings of Florentine artist Piero di Cosimo; Alexander Noelle, assistant curator of European paintings and sculpture, 1500–1800; and fellow CMA trustees and members, Ott-Hansen learned about the exciting projects the museum is undertaking to care for, enhance, and spotlight its renowned Italian collection, which is regarded around the world as having especially strong holdings of Italian Renaissance and Mannerist works, as well as Italian Baroque art.

“One of the benefits of traveling with the museum is that you not only see extraordinary works of art but you also spend time with and learn from the curators who specialize in that art. Alexander’s knowledge and enthusiasm were contagious,” Ott-Hansen said. It became clear to him how important this work is and that he could play a key role in securing its future for generations to come.

Ott-Hansen and his wife, the late Anne Buckley Ott-Hansen, moved from New York to Cleveland in the 1950s. In the decades since, they have been among the CMA’s most loyal friends. Their involvement with the museum has been extensive—Ott-Hansen served as president of both the Print Club and the Painting and Drawing Society, and he is a longtime member of the Leadership Circle and its precursor. He was also bestowed with an honorary trusteeship by the CMA’s board of trustees in December 2023 in recognition of his remarkable dedication to the museum. Anne was a member of the Womens Council, and both enjoyed traveling with the museum. Ott-Hansen has become friends with many of the museum’s directors and curators, who inspired him to begin collecting art himself.

Initially, he focused on acquiring maritime prints and paintings, influenced by his three years in the Navy and his love of sailing. His interests have grown to include French and British 19th-century prints, 17th-century Dutch and Flemish paintings, and Indian and Southeast Asian sculpture. Stanislaw J. Czuma, former curator of Indian and Southeast Asian art at the CMA from 1972 to 2005, is a close family friend of the Ott-Hansens and helped him expand the scope of his collecting. Ott-Hansen’s gift to the CMA’s capital campaign in 2006 resulted in the naming of the office space of the Indian and Southeast Asian curator.

Ott-Hansen instilled his love of art in his family, and as a result, three generations of Ott-Hansens have become CMA supporters and involved in the arts. Sarah chairs the Leadership Circle board and is assistant treasurer of the Womens Council; her son, Peter Hirsch, is an Emerging Leadership Circle member; her daughter, Emily Hirsch, is pursuing a PhD in Flemish art; and her son, Geoff Hirsch, returns to Cleveland from Dallas every summer to attend Solstice.

With the support of his family, Ott-Hansen decided to endow the curatorial position currently held by Noelle, which is now known as the Henry and Anne Ott-Hansen Family Curator of European Painting and Sculpture, 1500–1800, in perpetuity. The timing was right—it was important to Ott-Hansen to make this generous commitment while Griswold is at the helm and Ellen Stirn Mavec, a longtime friend whom he greatly admires, is serving as board chair. 

Not only that, but, as he knows, 2025 is an exceptional year for Italian art at the CMA. Noelle’s first exhibition at the museum, Filippino Lippi and Rome, opens in the Julia and Larry Pollock Focus Gallery in late November 2025. It reevaluates the impact of the painter’s time in the Eternal City, presenting Lippi’s Roman artworks in context with their Florentine precursors and successors. The Painting and Drawing Society—which recently granted Henry and Sarah life memberships as thanks for endowing the curatorial position—is generously funding a brand-new, period-appropriate frame, which is currently being carved in Florence for the highlight of the show, for Lippi’s exquisite tondo The Holy Family with Saint John the Baptist and Saint Margaret. Scholars regard this piece as perhaps the finest of his works outside of Italy. Ott-Hansen and his family look forward to the opening of the exhibition and are proud of their support of the CMA.