Museum acquisitions

Toledo Museum of Art uses cryptocurrency to acquire digital art piece

The museum used USD Coin to buy an NFT in a new series by the artist collective Yatreda ያጥሬዳ

Gift of more than $45m and 331 works for the Clark Art Institute

The gifts, from the foundation of the late trustee Aso O. Tavitian, will allow the Massachusetts museum to build a new wing

North Carolina museum receives $5m in art and funding from artist and philanthropist Carol Cole Levin

The Weatherspoon Art Museum at the University of North Carolina in Greensboro will get around 270 works for its collection and funds to renovate its building

Rijksmuseum acquires controversial early botanic book on Suriname

Maria Sibylla Merian was accused of exploiting native knowledge of enslaved people without credit for her 1705 book Metamorphosis Insectorum Surinamensium

US National Gallery acquires four Robert Longo drawings, including one of the 6 January insurrection

The monumental works highlight both the might and the fragility of US government institutions

Getty Museum acquires portrait by Neo-Classical painter Sophie Frémiet

It is the first US-museum acquisition of a work by the talented pupil of Jacques-Louis David

Developer’s $325m gift will help create new museum in Seattle

Richard Hedreen is donating a collection valued at $300m and $25m cash to create an art museum at Seattle University

Baltimore Museum of Art acquires its first piece of performance art

The performance by Jefferson Pinder is one of more than 100 new acquisitions recently announced by the institution

When Van Gogh’s ‘Sunflowers’ was bought by the National Gallery it was snubbed as one of its top 100 acquisitions of the decade

Omitted from the 1920s book, next September the masterpiece will star in a London blockbuster on Vincent’s art of Provence

US National Gallery of Art receives its first works of Haitian art, via two gifts

The 15 works, donated by two collecting couples, will form the core of an exhibition in autumn 2024

Collectors Marilyn and Larry Fields make ‘landmark gift’ of 79 works to MCA Chicago

The gifted works are predominantly by woman-identifying and Bipoc artists, including pieces by Huma Bhabha, Arthur Jafa, Adrian Piper, Jennie C. Jones and Cindy Sherman

SFMoMA acquires more than 100 works by artists with disabilities

The acquisitions mark a new partnership between the museum and Bay Area non-profit Creative Growth Art Center; the museum also acquired works from Creativity Explored and Nurturing Independence through Artistic Development

Tibetan Buddhist shrine with more than 200 artefacts donated to the Minneapolis Institute of Art

The shrine comes from Alice S. Kandell, who amassed one of the most significant private collections of Tibetan Buddhist art in North America

Portrait of Omai? What about bringing Henry VIII’s epic tapestry back to the UK, says British businessman

The piece by Pieter Coecke van Aelst remains in Spain but Jonathan Ruffer wants to show it at his new Faith Museum in County Durham

Baltimore Museum of Art acquires LaToya Ruby Frazier installation honouring community healthcare workers

The installation spotlights health workers that helped underserved communities in Baltimore at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic

SFMoMA acquires architectural capsule from Tokyo's famed Metabolist tower

Architect Kisho Kurokawa's Nakagin Capsule Tower was demolished last year, but 23 of its distinctive pods were preserved

Hans Arp’s estate gifts 220 sculptures to ten museums around the world

Many of the gifted works will go to European institutions, while others are bound for Boston, Dallas and Melbourne

San Diego's museums of art and photography will merge

The Balboa Park cultural mainstays will form one institution, effective 1 July

The oldest Hebrew Bible in existence breaks auction record for a manuscript at Sotheby's

The price for the Codex Sassoon surpassed the sum Bill Gates paid for a Leonardo da Vinci codex in 1994

A series of recent lawsuits could change the way UK museums acquire works for their collections

Disputed attribution claims rarely play out in court, but two recent legal cases could provide valuable lessons for acquisitions teams at cultural institutions across the UK

Seattle Art Museum receives 48 Calder works and $10m from former Microsoft president and his wife

The trove of works from Jon and Kim Shirley includes many mobiles and stabiles, and comes with a commitment to fund ongoing programming on the artist

Major Bill Traylor painting that previously belonged to Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright is gifted to the American Folk Art Museum

The painting, which belonged to the late playwright Lanford Wilson, was donated to the museum by his Circle Repertory Company co-founder, Tanya Berezin

Acquisitions round up: the Met acquires 16th-century portrait of pope's banker

Our pick of the latest gifts and purchases to enter institutional collections worldwide

London to get free, permanent David Bowie display as Victoria and Albert Museum acquires archive

Costumes, albums, lyrics and videos from 80,000-strong collection will go on show at the V&A East Storehouse from 2025