The Met receives a donation of 125 million dollars

The Metropolitan Museum of Art (Met) in New York has just received the largest donation in its history. Worth 125 million dollars, it was granted by Agnes Hsu-Tang, art historian and archaeologist, and Oscar Tang, co-founder of the management company Reich and Tang. In New York, the Metropolitan Museum of Art (Met) has just benefited from a substantial boost to materialize its expansion project: a donation of 125 million dollars from the couple Agnes Hsu-Tang, historian of the art and archaeologist, and Oscar Tang, co-founder of the management company Reich and Tang. This donation, the largest in its history, will help carry out the renovation project of the modern wing, set up almost ten years ago and requiring some 500 million dollars. An extension of more than 7,000 m 2 This donation is intended to finance the construction of a new modern wing. With a surface area of ​​more than 7,000 m2, the project will include a gallery and a public space and should bear the Tang name for at least fifty years. The architect who will be in charge of the project remains unknown today. This project is part of a more global desire by Max Hollein, director of the museum since 2018, to exhibit more exhaustively the works owned by the institution. Oscar Tang explained to the "New York Times" : "The Met has an extraordinary opportunity to be much more universal and to develop in the modern and the contemporary. In the field of art, we haven't focused enough on that. We wanted to help the museum move in this direction, beyond the western norm . This donation is intended to finance the construction of a new modern wing. ©Mike Peel/Wikimedia Commons Two donors involved in art and culture For three decades already, Oscar Tang has been a member of the museum's board of directors. He is even the first American of Asian origin to integrate it in 1994. "America has given me refuge and education, and opportunities to succeed ," he said in a statement. Agnes Hsu-Tang, meanwhile, is an elected member of the New-York Historical Society (a cultural organization devoted to the history of New York and the United States). She was also an advisor to UNESCO in Paris for more than ten years, between 2003 and 2014, and was part of the advisory committee for cultural property under the presidency of Barack Obama. Seen in Connaissance des Arts - Clara Baudry 1 hour video about the MET