Jeremy K. Simien is a well-known connoisseur of antique Louisiana paintings, furniture and fine craft. In particular, the 40-year-old Baton Rouge art collector seeks out items that call attention to slavery and race relations in colonial and pre-Civil War society. It can be a splintery area of specialization, since not everyone cares to be reminded of past societal ills.

Years back, Simien said, he asked a museum director why there was so little historical evidence of people of color in the institution’s collection. The director, whom Simien declined to name, said that such artifacts just didn’t exist or couldn’t be found anyway. With that, Simien embarked on a sometimes quixotic quest.

In time, he discovered that evidence of antebellum slavery and the historical contributions of non-Eur

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