Zsigmond Ormós

Ormós Zsigmond, one of the most prominent native of Banat, was born in Pecica in 1813, studied in Arad, Timișoara, Szeged, Oradea and Pozsony (today’s Bratislava). He returned to Timișoara as a lawyer after completing his studies, having already been quite active in the field of literature. As a civil servant, he worked in the administration of the towns of Recaș and Buziaș, but he also served as a member of the Budapest parliament. After the revolution of 1848-49, he was arrested and imprisoned in Timișoara. Receiving amnesty in 1850, he left Hungary, in fact he went into self-exile. For several years he studied art history in Austria, Italy, Germany and France. In 1866 he was elected deputy, then, in 1871, committee of Timis. Being a passionate collector of art objects, he founded the Society of Archaeology and History of Southern Hungary, the nucleus of the Banat Museum, as well as the Timișoara Art Museum. His collection of Italian, Flemish, German, Austrian, Hungarian, Flemish, Austrian, Hungarian and Banat collection of paintings, graphics and decorative arts, consisting of first-hand works, copies of great masters, will become part of the patrimony of the above-mentioned association through his testamentary donation of September 18, 1895. Ormós Zsigmond died in Budapest in 1894.