"Asked why he decided to collect African art, Paul Tishman replied, "How does one fall in love?" Such was the passion Paul and Ruth Tishman brought to collecting. The Tishmans acquired their first works of African art - an ivory figure and a bronze mask from the Benin kingdom - in the late 1950s. Over the next 20 plus years, the Tishmans built one of the great private collections of African art that included the major art traditions found throughout the continent. The Tishmans' desire to share the art with as many people as possible led to the 1984 sale of the collection to the Walt Disney Company, who proved to be generous stewards, making the collection available for exhibition and publication. In the autumn of 2005, the Walt Disney World Co., a subsidiary of the Walt Disney Company, donated the Walt Disney-Tishman African Art Collection to the National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, continuing the tradition of sharing the rich history of African art and culture with current and future generations." --