The Neue Galerie, the Manhattan institution opened by the philanthropist Ronald S. Lauder in 2001 in a Beaux-Arts mansion on Fifth Avenue and home to the richest collection of 20th-century Austrian and German Modernism outside Europe, will merge with the neighbouring Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2028. The news comes two weeks before the Neue Galerie is due to close, on 27 May, for major renovations. It will reopen in the autumn, just in time to celebrate its 25th anniversary in November.
As part of the merger, Lauder and his daughter Aerin Lauder Zinterhofer will donate 13 works of German and Austrian Modern art from their personal collections to the combined institution. Included in the gift are works by Otto Dix, George Grosz, Christian Schad and Gustav Klimt.
The Neue Galerie’s building, the six-storey William Starr Miller House at the corner of Fifth Avenue and 86th Street, will become the Met Ronald S. Lauder Neue Galerie, and will continue to house its collection, programming and beloved Viennese-style restaurant, Café Sabarsky. (The café is named for Serge Sebarsky, the dealer with whom Lauder originally conceived of the idea for the Neue Galerie, who died five years before the institution opened.)
“The merger with the Met in 2028 will preserve and strengthen the Neue Galerie’s legacy in perpetuity,” Lauder wrote in a letter about the merger. “I am especially grateful to [the Met’s director and chief executive] Max Hollein for his leadership and deep understanding of the historical importance of this collection. Under his direction, the Met continues to stand not only as one of the world’s great museums, but as a steadfast guardian of culture, memory, and identity. I am confident that Max and the Met are well positioned to help steward this legacy into the future. Through this partnership, we can carry the Neue Galerie forward with distinction.”
Gustav Klimt’s Der Schwarze Federhut (The Black Feather Hat) (1910) is one of the works Ronald Lauder and Aerin Lauder Zinterhofer will donate to the merged Neue Galerie and Metropolitan Museum of Art Courtesy Ronald S. Lauder and Aerin Lauder Zinterhofer
Lauder’s history with the Met goes back decades. Most notably, in 2020 he made a promised gift of 91 pieces of European arms and armour. In recognition of this, the Met’s display areas for its collections of such materials are named the Ronald S. Lauder Galleries of Arms and Armor.
More than two dozen Met trustees have made donations in support of the merger, led by the longtime trustee Marina Kellen French. Lauder and Lauder Zinterhofer will also support an endowment to fund the Neue Galerie’s long-term care and preservation, and have pledged funds to assist with the costs of integrating the two institutions. The two museums will now establish a joint advisory board to steer the merger, with Lauder serving as its inaugural chair.
“Ronald Lauder is a collector like none other,” Hollein said in a statement. “Among his many areas of connoisseurship, fin de siècle art from Austria and Germany is closest to his heart. Ronald has established a museum that is itself a work of art, and ultimately a profound reflection of his passion, expertise, and philanthropy. We are deeply grateful to Ronald, Aerin, and their family for their generosity and long-standing commitment to sharing their glorious collection with the world, and honoured to carry on their tremendous legacy.”
The merger will significantly bolster the Met’s holdings of early 20th-century Austrian and German art, bringing the Neue Galerie’s exceptional array of works by Klimt (including the iconic Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I from 1907), Egon Schiele, Gabriele Münter, Oskar Kokoschka, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Max Beckmann, Josef Hoffmann and others into its permanent collection.
