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Dr. Lillian Malcove Ormos was a New York City psychoanalyst who was also an avid art collector. Works from the Malcove Collection are on rotating exhibition in the permanent Malcove Gallery. 

Among the earliest objects are a small sculpture from the Anatolian Bronze Age (ca. 4000-2000 BC) and a tiny Assyrian sealstone decorated with a winged sphinx (ca. 1300-1200 BC). Other ancient works include fine glassware, bronze lamps from the Greco-Roman period, and stone and bronze images of Sarapis, Isis, Cybele, and Zeus.

Many pieces in the Collection come from Early Christian, Byzantine and Post Byzantine contexts. Two displays highlight secular and sacred objects from these epochs, including pilgrim flasks and tokens, reliquary, pectoral and processional crosses, metal icons, and liturgical implements such as a polycandelon with hanger, censors, spoons, bread stamps and an ossuary.

In addition to our permanent displays of medieval furniture and Byzantine and Post Byzantine icons, there are several sculpture installations in the gallery, including three Coptic reliefs from the 4th -6th century.

In 2002 a generous donation by Dr. John Foreman of London, Ontario, added 55 Greek and Russion icons dating from the 16th to 20th centuries to the Malcove Collection. This gift makes the Collection one of the most important and invaluable resources for students and experts conducting research on late- and post-Byzantine icons and inconography in Canada.

Dawn Cain, former Curator of the Malcove Colletion with Elisa Coish, a former curatorial assistant have undertaken major biographical research of Lillian Malcove. Their project is documented at the Lillian Malcove Biography Project website. 

Malcove Collection News:

Perhaps the most famous piece in the Malcove Collection, and now currently on display, is the remarkable painting of Adam and Eve (dated 1538) by Lucas Cranach the Elder which has been added to the Cranach Digital Archive. This archive presents extensive information on 600 paintings from 80 institutions and private collections.

Adam and Eve  will be on loan to the Winnipeg Art Gallery for their exhibition 100 Masterworks: Only in Canada which runs from 10 May to 11 August 2013.

The 16th Century Italo-Byzantine cross belonging to the Malcove Collection is the centre piece for Giorias Press'  recently published  the book, A 16th Century Italo-Byzantine Cross, edited by the founding curator of the Malcove Collection, Sheila Campbell.  The contributors have tried to reconstruct the mingling of two cultures, Greek and Italian, in sixteenth century Venice  through the medium of this intricately carved wooden cross, executed by a Greek carver, with adaptations suitable to a member of the Latin church. Who was it made for and why?

Malcove Collection Online:

By clicking the UTAC Collections Online button above left, and selecting the Malcove Collection, you can perform simple searches by artist, title, date, medium and keyword, as well as more advanced searches. Please note the online collections while comprehensive, are a work in process, and updated regularly.

The UTAC Collections Online project has been made possible by a generous grant from the Museums Assistance Program of the Department of      Canadian Heritage and by the support of Margaret [Peg] McKelvey.

You can also click here for a summary of the works currently on display in the Malcove Gallery in a PDF format, this information is also available from the UTAC Collections Online database.

Malcove Collection Works are also available on FADIS. FADIS is the Federated Academic Digital Imaging System, accessible to anyone with a UTORid.
When in FADIS, click the magnifying glass icon in the menu at the top of the screen. Enter "Malcove" in the search box and click "search".

A list of objects in the Malcove Collection is available below. This list will be updated periodically and should not be considered definitive.

Malcove Collection Object List