![photo of Julia Meech](https://www.frick.org/sites/default/files/styles/medium/public/images/press/JuliaMeech.png?itok=6S_c_kIO)
The Frick’s Center for the History of Collecting in America announces that Julia Meech has been named the first winner of its Sotheby’s Book Prize for her critically acclaimed monograph Frank Lloyd Wright and the Art of Japan: The Architect’s Other Passion (Harry N. Abrams in association with the Japan Society). Comments Frick Director Anne Poulet, “The goal of the Center is to stimulate awareness and study of art collecting in this country, to foster research, and to encourage scholarly discourse. The newly created prize (formally known as the Sotheby’s Prize for a Distinguished Publication on the History of Collecting in America) is a critical element toward these efforts. It also represents the summation of a wide range of activities undertaken in a very short time by the Center, which was established only two years ago at the Frick Art Reference Library. Indeed, the Center’s fellowships and research tools avail scholars of the time, funds, and information needed to prepare a publication in this growing field; its academic programs ensure that the history of art collecting is accepted and encouraged as an essential part of university art history curricula. Furthermore, its symposia stimulate explorations of uncharted areas of collecting history. We offer our gratitude to Sotheby’s, which has agreed to fund the biennial prize for a period of six years, and we extend our sincere congratulations to author Julia Meech for her wonderfully researched publication. I look forward to presenting the award to her formally at a reception hosted at The Frick Collection on December 16.”