A Museum · New York, United States
Neue Galerie
The Deep Dive
The Neue Galerie New York opened in November 2001, founded by cosmetics heir and philanthropist Ronald S. Lauder together with art dealer Serge Sabarsky, who had shared a passion for early 20th-century German and Austrian art since meeting in 1967; after Sabarsky's death in 1996, Lauder brought their shared vision to life. The museum occupies the William Starr Miller House, a 1914 Louis XIII/Beaux-Arts mansion on Fifth Avenue's Museum Mile, restored and adapted by Selldorf Architects into intimate period-style galleries, complete with the Viennese-inspired Café Sabarsky and Café Fledermaus. Its collection, focused tightly on Austrian and German painting, decorative arts, and design from 1890 to 1940, gained global fame in 2006 when Lauder acquired Gustav Klimt's 'Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I' — popularly known as 'Woman in Gold' — for a then-record $135 million, following the painting's restitution to Maria Altmann. In May 2026, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Neue Galerie announced a landmark merger, under which the institution will become 'The Met Ronald S. Lauder Neue Galerie,' retaining curatorial autonomy, its building, and its collection (Woman in Gold will not relocate to the Met's main campus) while gaining Met operational support and a roughly $200 million endowment; the museum closed on 27 May 2026 for renovation ahead of a planned reopening in autumn 2026, with the full merger expected to complete by 2028. Despite its small scale, the Neue Galerie is considered the premier showcase of Vienna 1900 and Weimar-era German art outside Europe.
Highlights
- ∞Gustav Klimt's 'Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I' (1907), known as 'Woman in Gold,' acquired for $135 million in 2006
- ∞The single most important collection of Austrian and German Vienna 1900 / Weimar-era art outside Europe
- ∞Housed in the 1914 William Starr Miller House, restored by Selldorf Architects
- ∞Café Sabarsky, a recreated Viennese coffeehouse honoring co-founder Serge Sabarsky
- ∞Holdings of Wiener Werkstätte decorative arts and design objects
- ∞A 2026 landmark merger announcement with the Metropolitan Museum of Art, forming 'The Met Ronald S. Lauder Neue Galerie'
- ∞Significant works by Egon Schiele and Oskar Kokoschka alongside Klimt
- ∞German Expressionist and Bauhaus-era works, including pieces connected to Der Blaue Reiter and Die Brücke
Notable works
- Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I ("Woman in Gold"), Gustav Klimt (1907)
- The Dancer, Gustav Klimt (1916-17)
- The Black Feather Hat, Gustav Klimt (1910)
- Forester's House in Weissenbach II (Garden), Gustav Klimt (1914)
- Stein on the Danube, Egon Schiele (1913)
- Martha Hirsch, Oskar Kokoschka (1909)
Sources
- 1. Neue Galerie New York - Wikipedia
- 2. Collection | Neue Galerie New York
- 3. Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I (Woman in Gold)
- 4. The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Ronald S. Lauder Neue Galerie New York Announce Plans for a Landmark Merger
- 5. New York's Neue Galerie will merge with the Metropolitan Museum - The Art Newspaper
- 6. New York's Neue Galerie to Merge with Metropolitan Museum of Art in Major Expansion - ARTnews
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Own the masterpiece the museum guards. Every work held by Neue Galerie, New York, United States that we recreate is finished by hand on archival canvas, numbered as a strictly limited Heirloom edition and built to be inherited — from ₹50,000, delivered across India with white-glove care.