NY's Met museum to take over Neue Galerie / Photo: Cindy Ord - GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP/File
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NY's Met museum to take over Neue Galerie
New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art will take control of the city's Neue Galerie, which houses the most important collection of 20th-century Austrian and German art outside Europe, in 2028, they said Thursday.
Founded in 2001 in a former mansion on Manhattan's "Museum Mile" along Fifth Avenue, the Neue Galerie includes several iconic works by Gustav Klimt, including the famous "Lady in Gold."
The museum was created by billionaire Ronald Lauder, heir to the Estee Lauder cosmetics empire, who is now 82.
As part of the agreement with the Met, the businessman and his daughter, Aerin Lauder Zinterhofer, also plan to donate 13 outstanding 20th-century Austrian and German paintings from their personal collections.
They include Klimt's "Die Tanzerin" (The Dancer), as well as works by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Otto Dix and George Grosz.
"Ronald Lauder is a collector like none other... Ronald has established a museum that is itself a work of art, and ultimately a profound reflection of his passion, expertise, and philanthropy," said Max Hollein, CEO of the Met and himself an Austrian art historian.
"The merger with The Met in 2028 will preserve and strengthen the Neue Galerie's legacy in perpetuity," Lauder said.
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