Exhibits & Collections

"Duke Treasure Houses" was the 2004 Exhibition at Rough Point.

With a true connoisseur's eye, a world traveler's experience, and great financial resources, Doris Duke collected aesthetic styles that appealed to her, disregarding current fads and creating her own decorating styles in her houses. She had begun collecting Islamic art in the 1930s for her house in Hawai'i, called Shangri La. Some twenty years later she turned her attention to Rough Point. Completely emptied several years before, after her mother stopped coming to Newport each summer, the house was a blank canvas for Miss Duke to decorate with art and furnishings from Duke Farms, the family's New York house, as well as the great art dealers and auction houses. The Duke family homes held many important collections. Now, the treasures from these houses belong to the public, as her continuing gift.