Millicent Rogers Museum

The Paul Peralta-Ramos Taos Collection

May 13, 2005 – March 12, 2006

Paul Peralta-Ramos, who passed away on August 26, 2003, was the youngest son of Millicent Rogers. Mr. Peralta-Ramos came to Taos, New Mexico with his mother, Standard Oil heiress Millicent Rogers in 1947. Known throughout the world as a fashion icon, Millicent became enamored with the high desert environment and the people she met. She immediately began collecting Spanish
Colonial furniture and Southwest American Indian jewelry, textiles, and pottery. Mr. Peralta-Ramos went on buying trips with his mother, and he inherited her extraordinary taste.  Becoming a connoisseur of Southwest American Indian and Spanish Colonial art himself, he amassed a large personal collection. Mr. Peralta-Ramos had a great eye for and appreciation of the material culture of the Southwest as well as a strong intellectual understanding of the history of the Southwest and the peoples who created these works.
 

In keeping with the collections of the Millicent Rogers Museum, Mr. Peralta-Ramos left to the Museum a large collection of 21 Rio Grande and Pueblo textiles, a rare Classic Navajo Wearing Blanket, 60 examples of Hispanic devotional art including retablos, bultos and crucifixes, as well as three San Ildefonso pots, one signed "Maria" and another signed "Maria/Popovi". This extraordinary collection is on exhibit form May 13, 2005, through March 12, 2006.

Over the past half century, the Millicent Rogers Museum has continued the tradition of collecting important pieces of Native American and Spanish Colonial arts and crafts.  Throughout the years Paul added extensively to the museum collections. The Paul Peralta-Ramos Taos Collection exhibit includes all of the pieces in his bequest as well as items he donated to the museum over the past half century. The Paul Peralta-Ramos Taos Collection adds significantly to what is already recognized as one of the most important collections of Native American and Spanish Colonial art in the world.