Maxim Karolik ~ born of modest circumstances in the Russian Federation, he found early employment in a local manor house that needed a kitchen boy; a gifted singer, he studied singing in St. Petersburg before Russian revolution. Securing a position as lead tenor at the Imperial Opera there, he fled Russia during the revolution. Having accumulated a small fortune in Opera commissions, he decided to settle in the U.S. His love of opera and art led him to Boston, where he continued to sing opera. In 1927, having become a prominent tenor in the U.S., travelled to Newport, Rhode Island to perform at a party given by Martha Catharine Codman, heiress to one of Boston's oldest fortunes whose Newport mansion,'Berkeley Villa', had recently been built by her cousin Ogden Codman Jr. Martha Codman, encountering an artist in the young, handsome, Maxim Karolik, asked him to join her in a tour of Europe, the goal of which was to acquire art for the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. He gladly accepted and their work largely formed the basis of the Karolik Wing. When they returned a year later, Newport society was shocked to learn that Martha Catharine Codman had proposed to, and married, her young and handsome opera companion ~ thirty-five years her junior. When she passed away exactly 20 years later Maxim inherited a fortune of over twenty-five million dollars, becoming one of the wealthiest men in Newport. The remaining fifteen years of his life were spent leisurely acquiring art treasures, searching New England for the finest treasures, sometimes even knocking on the doors of historic homes to see what was inside, purchasing, if he found anything he liked, what he wanted right out of their homes, donating his entire collection to the Museum of Fine Arts. In Newport, he became one of the founding members of the Preservation Society, whose main purpose was to preserve and document historic Newport. It was largely through him that the society was able to furnish it's rescued homes with furniture that was original to the home, many pieces which he had to track across the East Coast. Serving as a trustee for almost two decades, much of the funding for the purchase of historic antiques came from him. Maxim Karolik beautified his Newport home, transforming the grounds of his beloved 'Berkeley Villa' into the resemblance of a European garden, transporting many of the flower beds, trees and fountains from ancient chateaus in France and England. Again in his later years adding a third collection to the Karolik Wing at the Museum of Fine Arts, he gave lectures throughout New England on American Art. As a prominent art collector, author, and musician Karolik was associated with many of the important figures in these fields, including Nicholas Slonimsky, Serge Koussevitsky, Erich Leinsdorf, Ima Hogg, Leopold Stokowski, Alexandre Tcherpnine, Henry P. Rossiter, Edward Weeks and a host of art dealers museum curators and directors. Maxim Karolik succumbed to a heart attack at the age of 70 years, while in New York City to discuss instituting a series of chamber music concerts at the New York Public Library. Though his fortune has been dispersed, the art collection and 'Berkeley Villa' remain, one in the hands of his beloved museum, the other in the private hands of a preservationist, both ever attracting the curiosity and wonder.