In an unexpected development, Ronald Lauder’s Neue Galerie is set to merge with the Metropolitan Museum of Art, located just down the road on Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue. This unique merger, set to be finalized in 2028, was announced by The Met on May 14. The Neue Galerie is renowned for its collection of late 19th- and early 20th-century Austrian and German art, notably featuring Gustav Klimt’s gold-leaf masterpiece, “Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I” (1907). The museum also boasts significant works by Egon Schiele, Oskar Kokoschka, Max Beckmann, Gabriele Münter, and Josef Hoffmann.
Ronald Lauder, along with art dealer Serge Sabarsky, established the museum in November 2001. Lauder described the merger in a press release as a means to “strengthen the Neue Galerie’s legacy in perpetuity.” Unlike the 1946 merger where the Met assimilated the Museum of Costume Art to form its Costume Institute, the Neue Galerie will maintain its premises and operate as an independent institution, according to a Met representative speaking to Hyperallergic.
Lauder, whose net worth is estimated at $4.9 billion, previously donated 91 pieces of arms and armor to the museum in 2020. His brother, Leonard Lauder, had given a collection of Cubist art valued at over $1 billion in 2013. Ronald Lauder has faced criticism for his financial support of Donald Trump and other Republican figures. Following protests in November 2024, demonstrators urged MoMA, where he is honorary chair, to cut ties due to his endorsement of Israel’s government. As part of the merger, Lauder and his daughter, Aerin Lauder Zinterhofer, will contribute 13 additional paintings to the unified institution, including Gustav Klimt’s “Die Tänzerin (The Dancer)” and Ernst Ludwig Kirchner’s “Die Russische Tänzerin Mela (The Russian Dancer Mela).” They will also provide an unspecified endowment for the institution’s future.
Additionally, other trustees have committed funds to create a “significant endowment” to support the collection. Editor’s note dated 5/15/26 10:24 am ET clarifies that it was Leonard Lauder, not Ronald, who gifted the Cubist artworks to the Met in 2013.
