A Masterstroke Gift: The Pearlman Collection Goes Public
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An Extraordinary Shift in Ownership
On August 4, 2025, the Henry and Rose Pearlman Foundation announced it will gift its entire collection of 63 Impressionist, Post-Impressionist, and Modern masterpieces to three leading museums: the Brooklyn Museum, LACMA (Los Angeles County Museum of Art), and New York’s MoMA. This move marks a historic redistribution of art held privately since the mid-20th century.
Why Distribute Across Three Museums?
Rather than entrust a single institution, the foundation chose to allocate works based on each museum’s strengths and mission.
The Brooklyn Museum will receive 29 works, including icons by Modigliani, Soutine, Degas, and Gauguin. These were selected to reflect Henry Pearlman’s personal journey and to connect with Brooklyn’s diverse community.
LACMA is receiving six works, including its first-ever pieces by Van Gogh ("Tarascon Stagecoach", 1888) and Manet ("Young Woman in a Round Hat", late 1870s), marking a milestone for its permanent collection.
MoMA will take in 28 works, primarily by Cézanne, such as Mont Sainte-Victoire and Cistern in the Park of Château Noir, along with about 15 Cézanne watercolors. This aligns with MoMA’s strong focus on drawings and prints.
The Journey of the Collection
Henry Pearlman began collecting in 1945 with a Chaïm Soutine landscape and spent the next three decades building one of the most personal collections of modern art. His wife Rose joined him in this passion. After Henry’s death in 1974, the collection was on long-term loan to the Princeton University Art Museum, where it remained publicly accessible, until now.
“Village Square” Exhibition Before the Split
Before the artworks are distributed to the three museums, they’ll be presented together one last time in a traveling exhibition titled Village Square: Gifts of Modern Art from the Pearlman Collection to the Brooklyn Museum, LACMA, and MoMA. It will debut at LACMA in February 2026, run through July, and then head to the Brooklyn Museum in the fall. A MoMA presentation will follow.
The Foundation’s Public-First Ethos
Daniel Edelman, president of the Pearlman Foundation and grandson of the founders, says the gift is rooted in principle. The collection, he believes, belongs to the public, not the family. Sharing it widely, he says, is their responsibility.
To make that happen, they’ve designed flexible guidelines that let the three museums share and rotate the works. The goal is to keep the collection active, visible, and constantly reaching new audiences.
What Each Museum Gains
At the Brooklyn Museum, visitors will encounter works tied to the Pearlmans’ personal story, such as Modigliani’s rare limestone Head (around 1910–11) and a portrait of Jean Cocteau from 1916.
LACMA gains its first paintings by Van Gogh and Manet, plus works by Toulouse-Lautrec, Sisley, Prendergast, and Lehmbruck, expanding and diversifying its European collection.
MoMA deepens its already significant Cézanne holdings with both paintings and watercolors, along with works by Degas and others that reinforce its narrative of modern art's evolution.
What This Really Means
This gift doesn’t just move masterpieces from private to public hands, it reimagines what shared cultural heritage can look like. Each museum receives pieces that suit its mission and audience, while the flexible rotation model ensures the collection keeps moving, reuniting, and inspiring.
In short, it's a public-first rethink of what it means to steward art. A once-private legacy is now a living, breathing cultural resource for everyone.
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