| Cosmetics billionaire Leonard Lauder has given his collection of 78 Cubist art works - thought to be worth about $1bn - to New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art. The gifts includes pieces by Picasso, Braque, Gris and Leger and took the heir to the Estee Lauder cosmetics empire four decades to bring together.
"Leonard's gift is truly transformational for the Metropolitan Museum," Metropolitan Museum of Art director Thomas Campbell said. "Although the Met is unique in its ability to exhibit over 5,000 years of art history, we have long lacked this critical dimension in the story of modernism. Now, Cubism will be represented with some of its greatest masterpieces. "This is an extraordinary gift to our museum and our city." The museum said the collection is unsurpassed in the number of masterpieces critical to the development of Cubism, which is considered the most influential art movement of the 20th century. Picasso's The Scallop Shell (Notre avenir est dans l'air, 1912), Woman In An Armchair (Eva, 1913), Braque's Trees At L'Estaque (1908) and The Violin (Mozart/Kubelick, 1912) are among the highlights of the collection. In a statement, Mr Lauder said his gift was for "the people who live and work in New York and those from around the world who come to visit our great arts institutions".
"I selected the Met as the way to share this collection because I feel that it's essential that Cubism - and the art that follows it, for that matter - be seen and studied within the collections of one of the greatest encyclopaedic museums in the world," the 80-year-old said. However, the public will have to wait until late 2014 before the huge array of works can be displayed at the museum. |
Leonard Lauder 
The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York Enclosures:
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