Building a collection is a difficult business. Art is more expensive than ever, and top collectors increasingly prefer to establish their own museums rather than donate to existing institutions. But curators and directors are tirelessly hustling to secure gifts and buy works of art that will stand the test of time. Here is our pick of the top acquisitions of 2015.
Blanton Museum, Austin, Texas
Ellsworth Kelly’s Austin
The artist Ellsworth Kelly donated Austin, a chapel-like building he conceived in 1986, to the Blanton Museum. The 2,715 sq. ft stone building, which was never realised, includes stained-glass windows that project iridescent patterns of light across the floor. “Maintaining a building that’s also a work of art is an ambitious experience for a museum,” says Simone Wicha, the director of the institution. It has raised around $20m of the project’s $23m budget and expects to complete construction by early 2017.
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts
Works from the Rothschild family
The heirs of Bettina Looram de Rothschild donated 186 objects to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. The works, which range from 17th-century European miniatures to a portrait by George Romney, embody what became known as le goût Rothschild (the Rothschild taste). The objects have a turbulent history: they were looted by the Nazis in 1938 and later returned by the Austrian government.
Israel Museum, Jerusalem
Belfer antiquities collection
In honour of its 50th anniversary, the Israel Museum received a major gift from the New York-based collectors Robert and Renée Belfer: more than 350 ancient artefacts, including hundreds of early glass vessels dating from the late Bronze Age to the Islamic period. The collection has particular significance for Israel, where ancient glass was invented, says the museum’s director, James Snyder.
Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois
Contemporary and Pop works from the Edlis-Neeson Collection
The Art Institute of Chicago received what it calls the largest gift in its history from the plastics mogul Stefan Edlis and his wife, Gael Neeson. The 42 works, valued in total at around $500m, enable the museum to more fully tell the story of Pop, from Andy Warhol to Jeff Koons. As a condition of the gift, the museum will keep the works on continuous display for 50 years.
National Gallery, London
Giovanni da Rimini’s panel painting
The US cosmetics heir Ronald Lauder bought a rare late Medieval Italian panel painting for £4.9m on behalf of London’s National Gallery. The UK government placed Scenes from the Lives of the Virgin and Other Saints (around 1300-05) by Giovanni da Rimini under a temporary export bar after it came to auction in July 2014. The panel is one of only three known paintings by the artist.
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, and Musée du Louvre, Paris
Rembrandt marriage portraits
The Dutch and French governments joined forces to buy a pair of portraits by Rembrandt from the French businessman Eric de Rothschild for €160m. The portraits of Maerten Soolmans and Oopjen Coppit, painted to mark their wedding in 1634, will be presented alternately at the Rijksmuseum, in Amsterdam, and the Louvre, in Paris. The portraits “show the ambition of youth: a young artist painting newlyweds in a young country”, says the Rijksmuseum’s director of collections, Taco Dibbits.
National Portrait Gallery, London
Lucian Freud archive
The National Portrait Gallery in London received a never-before-seen archive from the estate of the painter Lucian Freud, who died in 2011. The archive, allocated by Arts Council England in lieu of £2.9m of inheritance tax, includes almost 50 sketchbooks that act as a “visual diary” of Freud’s career, says the curator Sarah Howgate. There are also more than 150 “meticulous” drawings from Freud’s childhood in Germany. Highlights from the archive are due to go on display in summer 2016.