Musical Instrument Museum co-founder Robert J. Ulrich is staunch Republican supporter

Musical Instrument Museum founder Robert J. Ulrich is staunch Republican supporter

By Lynda Carson - June 30, 2024

The Musical Instrument Museum (MIM) of Phoenix, Arizona, with 7,500 musical instruments or more, was founded by Robert J. Ulrich, of Edina, Minnesota, a multi-millionaire staunch Republican supporter.

“Our Story,” according to MIM, “MIM began with a vision to create a musical instrument museum that would be truly global. Realizing most musical museums featured historic, primarily Western classical instruments, MIM’s founder Bob Ulrich (then CEO of Target Corporation) was inspired to develop a new kind of museum that would focus on the kind of instruments played every day by people worldwide. A focus on the guest experience shaped every aspect of the museum’s development. From the beginning, our goal has been to deliver a musical experience that is enriching, inspiring, interesting, and fun.

Today, MIM has a collection of more than 7,500 instruments from more than 200 world countries and territories. The galleries reflect the rich diversity and history of many world cultures. But music and instruments also show us what we have in common—a thought powerfully expressed in our motto, music is the language of the soul.”

Additionally, according to MIM, they have nearly 450 guitars from around the world, and probably most of the guitars were not made in union factories.

Reportedly, “Bob Ulrich, former CEO of nonunion retailer Target, justified Target’s antiunion philosophy by saying that Target "simply doesn't believe that third-party representation would add anything for our customers, our employees, or our shareholders. We just do not believe it's productive and adds value."

Not only is Robert J. Ulrich reportedly the founder of MIM, he is presently on the board of directors of MIM, and reportedly is worth around $31 million.

According to public records during the fiscal year ending in 2022, after subtracting their liabilities from their assets, MIM had net assets of $155,911,712 , and Ulrich is listed as the chairman of the organization.

During fiscal year 2022, reportedly the “Goldman Sachs Philanthropy Fund,” made the largest contribution to MIM of a whopping $10,940,000.

Reportedly, according to Open Secrets in 2017, “Each time President Donald Trump adds another Goldman Sachs alum to his administration, it’s tempting to bring up his campaign-trail rhetoric about the investment bank. After all, it seems as though Trump is trying to drain the swamp by forcing it to overflow; last week, he nominated Goldman managing director James Donovan to the post of deputy Treasury secretary, to serve alongside the department’s secretary, Steven Mnuchin — another former Goldman bigwig.” And reportedly, “Gary Cohn, the former Goldman Sachs COO left the bank to become President Trump's National Economic Council director.”

Apparently, MIM nor has Ulrich bothered to mention or reveal on their website that Ulrich is a staunch Republican supporter. Would that possibly be because the election denier, twice impeached, white supremacist, neo-Nazi supporter, convicted of 34 felonies, Donald J. Trump, who is still facing many charges, controls the Republican party? Or perhaps because the Republicans tried to stage a coup, and stormed the Capitol building on January 6, threatening to hang former vice president, Mike Pence?

As recent as 1/18/2024, reportedly, Ulrich contributed $41,000, to the NRCC.

Robert Ulrich / MIM Collection Of African Art:

For those who may be curious, click here to see the collection of African art and musical instruments at the Musical Instrument Museum (MIM).

During a 2018 interview with Bob Ulrich, reportedly, “Ulrich: I started collecting African art in the late 1980s. I was on the board of the Minneapolis Institute of Art, and became friends with the director, who is an expert on African ritual figures. I also became friends with Marc Felix, one of the world’s experts on art from that region. I liked pieces that were a bit Cubist in feeling.

At that time I had no intent to collect instruments, I was solely focused on things that were sculptural or beautiful in nature. I ended up with things like an ivory horn, an intricately carved drum. There were perhaps a dozen of those musical items within my collection, and some of those are currently exhibited at MIM. But it was just a side thing.”

The Plunder Of Art By Colonizers:

Reportedly in April, 2024, “Italy's Culture Ministry has banned loans of works to the Minneapolis Institute of Art, following a dispute with the U.S. museum over an ancient marble statue believed to have been looted from Italy almost a half-century ago.”

More about the Minneapolis Institute of Art (MIA), may be found in a report called, “Confronting the legacy of looting: From colonialism to Nazis, MIA is reckoning with the ancient problem of plunder.

Additionally, according to wikipedia, “In 2008, the museum (MIA) restituted Fernand Leger’s “Smoke Over Rooftops” to the heirs of Jewish collector Alphonse Kann whose collection had been looted by Nazis. The painting had passed through the Buchholz Gallery in New York in 1951.

In April 2024, the Italian Ministry of Culture ordered a ban on loans to the museum due to a legal dispute regarding the provenance of the Stabiae Doriforo, a Roman-era copy of the ancient Greek sculpture The Doryphoros of Polykleitos, which Italy said was looted from Stabiae and was subsequently bought by the museum from a private dealer in 1986.”

A few links to some campaign contributions made to Republicans by Robert J. Ulrich may be seen further below…

Lynda Carson may be reached at newzland2 [at] gmail.com

https://www.fec.gov/data/receipts/individual-contributions/?contributor_name=Robert+J.+Ulrich

Electing Majority Making Effective Republicans

$5,000 1/18/2024

https://docquery.fec.gov/cgi-bin/fecimg/?202404199633542669

https://docquery.fec.gov/cgi-bin/fecimg/?202405159646005984

https://docquery.fec.gov/cgi-bin/fecimg/?202406139648980488

https://docquery.fec.gov/cgi-bin/fecimg/?202404169633434422

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Committee NRCC - Republican Party - $22,100.00 - 1/23/2023

https://docquery.fec.gov/cgi-bin/fecimg/?202304209581166131

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