The private museum was founded by entrepreneur and philanthropist Ronald Lauder in memory of his friend, art dealer Serge Sabarsky, who shared his passion for German and Austrian art and design in the 1890s and 1940s.
Neue Galerie is located in a cozy mansion on 86th Street and 5th Avenue that clearly shows the taste of its organizer: the first floor features works by Gustav Klimt, Egon Schiele and Oskar Kokoschka, and the second floor features Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and Otto Dix.
The crème de la crème of the collection is Gustav Klimt’s 1907 Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I, or Golden Adele, which Lauder purchased for the museum in 2006 for $135 million. The history of this painting is so remarkable that it was recently the basis for the film “Woman in Gold,” starring Helen Mirren and Ryan Reynolds. This museum, also part of the Museum Mile, also hosts temporary exhibitions on German Expressionism, the individual members of the movement, and their connections to world art.
