Megumi Sasaki, the director of the documentary “Herb and Dorothy 50x50,” first learned about the Vogels while on assignment at the National Gallery in Washington D.C.
“I think that there were about seventy works exhibited there and they were all part of the Herbert and Dorothy Vogel collection,” Sasaki said. “I learned about Herb and Dorothy right there for the first time and I was totally shocked – in a good way. I just could not believe that was a true story.”
The story is about a couple of humble means who had an insatiable appetite for collecting art. They lived in a one-bedroom apartment in New York City. Herbert Vogel worked as a postal worker and Dorothy Vogel worked as a librarian. They decided to live off of Dorothy’s salary and use all of Herbert’s salary to purchase artwork.
Over the years they amassed nearly 5,000 pieces of artwork totaling in the hundreds of millions of dollars. In a grand gesture of generosity, they later donated fifty works of art to each state in the United States. The Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art in Logan received the gift on behalf of the state of Utah.
“I think Herb and Dorothy are a good example that you don’t really have to be a millionaire or a Rockefeller… to be an art collector,” Sasaki said. “There’s always a way to accomplish something and enjoy life and be happy.”
Though Hebert Vogel passed in 2012, Dorothy Vogel said that she still enjoys attending exhibition openings and film screenings across the country.
“Doing this brings back all the memories of buying it. It brings back all the memories with my husband. So it’s very nostalgic thing to do,” Dorothy Vogel said.
She said she also looks forward to what Utah has to offer.
“I’ve been Googling Utah and finding out what kinds of foods you eat and things like that, so I am very excited to come,” Dorothy Vogel said.
For more information about the film screening, visit the Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art's website.