MINNEAPOLIS, MN.- The Minneapolis Institute of Arts (MIA), one of the nation’s leading art museums, is undertaking a thoughtful and purposeful expansion of its sculpture and decorative arts collection. Over the past few months, the museum has acquired a seminal piece of 18th-century French silver, rare examples of 17th- and 18th-century Spanish religious iconography, and 16th-century Venetian cutlery, among other significant objects. The museum’s James Ford Bell Curator of Decorative Arts and Sculpture, Eike D. Schmidt, leads the MIA’s department of Decorative Arts, Textiles & Sculpture. Schmidt, who joined the MIA in 2009, is overseeing the purchase of these important works and is carefully evaluating the MIA’s collection, and its display and interpretation. “The Decorative Arts collection is the largest and most diverse in the museum,” Kaywin Feldman, MIA