Frederic Count de Thoms
Frederic Count de Thoms (1669–1746) was a German art collector with important political connections. He was born in Giessen, wrote a biography of Louis XIV in 1715, and became secretary to King George I of Great Britain in 1719. While in Italy he earned the title of count.
In 1741 he settled in Leiden and married Joanna Maria Boerhaave, daughter of the Dutch physician Herman Boerhaave. He began collecting antiquities; part of his collection is now shown in the Dutch National Museum of Antiquities and in the Geldmuseum in Utrecht, and an anonymous portrait from his collection is kept at Museum De Lakenhal in Leiden.
In the 1730s he lived in Naples and bought many notable pieces from Rome dealers with his wealth. After moving to Leiden, part of the collection was placed at Oud Poelgeest, the castle of his wife’s family, while the rest remained at his house on Rapenburg 31 in Leiden. He devoted much time to building a private museum.
When he died in Leiden in 1746, his collection was sold to William IV, Prince of Orange, for 30,000 guilders. It stayed with the Orange family until Napoleon’s troops seized the art for Paris. In 1815, after Napoleon’s defeat, the collection was returned and placed in museums in Amsterdam, The Hague, and Leiden.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 18:25 (CET).