Kenneth Thompson

The Thomson Corporation was one of the world's largest information companies. Thomson was active in financial services, health, law, science and technological research, taxes and accounting sectors. The company operated through five segments: Thomson Financial, Thomson Healthcare, Thomson Legal, Thomson Scientific, and Thomson tax & Accounting.

Until 2007, The Thomson Corporation was also one of the world ' s leading provider of higher education textbooks, academic information solutions and reference materials. On 26 October 2006, Thomson announced the proposal to sell its Thomson Learning assets. In May 2007, Thomson Learning was acquired by Apax Partners and in July became Cengage Learning. Subsequently, on 15 October 2007, Educational Testing Service (ETS), the world leader in educational research and evaluation, completed the acquisition of Thomson Prometric. Thomson sold its global network of testing centers in 135 countries, for a reported amount of $435 million. Prometric now operates as a subsidiary owned by ETS.

On May 15, 2007, The Thomson Corporation agreed with Reuters to combine the two companies, an operation valued at $17.2 billion. On April 17, 2008, the new company was created under the name of Thomson Reuters. The new head of Thomson Reuters is Tom Glocer, the former Chief of Reuters.

Although it is officially a Canadian company, Thomson has been executed from its operational headquarters in Stamford, Connecticut, but it remained Canadian property.

In recent years this museum has experienced a formidable expansion of both spaces and its collections. In 2008 he received the donation of Baron Ken Thomson (considered the largest Canadian collector) which consisted of a thousand pieces valued at $300 million. Especially interested in small objects such as ivory carvings, ancient rosaries and Egyptian figurines, Thomson however had as the main treasy the great picture The massacre of the innocent of Rubens, which acquired in 2001 by the record figure of 49.5 million pounds (about 76.2 million dollars). This whole set passed to the museum in 2006, and in the same year, the museum received from other donors a great bronze sculpture of Bernini (Christ crucifiedAlso called Corpus).

In 2001, George Gordon, an expert in flamenco art and Rubens, saw the painting at the London auction house Sotheby's. He soon realized that it was an authentic picture of Rubens, as it presented the same characteristics of other paintings of the period. It was sold on 10 July 2002 by £49.5 million (approximately $76.2 million). The buyer's identity was later revealed: it was the Canadian baron Kenneth Thompson, considered the largest collector in Canada. The price was, and in January 2007 it remained, the largest ever paid in auction for a work of ancient art. After the auction the painting was loaned by the baron to the Ottawa National Gallery, and in 2008 it was transferred to the Ontario Art Gallery within a donation of multiple baron works valued at $300 million

.