Culturally Curious

07/20/2026

05/19/2026

I LOVE this woman!

05/15/2026

New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art said it has agreed to merge with the Neue Galerie, cosmetics billionaire Ronald Lauder’s esteemed museum for German and Austrian modern art housed in an ornate beaux-arts building across Fifth Avenue. 🔗 https://on.wsj.com/4uPv1IR

The Met said it will assume ownership and operation of Lauder’s 25-year-old museum in 2028, informally renaming it the Met Neue Galerie.

Its 600-work trove including Gustav Klimt’s shimmering woman in gold from 1907, “Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I,” will remain largely in place.

“These are icons of art history, so we’re incredibly excited,” said Met director and chief executive Max Hollein, an Austrian who has also served as a trustee of the Neue for 20 years.

He said the donation fills a huge gap in the Met’s holdings of this artistic era. “If you went to Vienna in 1900 or Berlin in 1920, you were in the epicenter of the developments of modern art, and Ronald understood this deeply. It’s a hugely generous gift.”

04/11/2026