This is What Happens When Sharing Art Matters More Than Owning It
The Pearlman Collection will be shared by MoMA, LACMA, and the Brooklyn Museum in a new model of collaboration and access.
There are art collections, and then there are love letters.
This week, the Henry and Rose Pearlman Foundation announced that its entire collection, a refined group of Impressionist, Post-Impressionist, and modern masterpieces, will be gifted to three public institutions: the Brooklyn Museum, LACMA, and MoMA.
But this is no ordinary bequest. It’s a model-shifting gesture rooted not in legacy-building, but in openness.
The collection, assembled with deep curiosity by self-taught collectors Henry and Rose Pearlman, includes major works by Cézanne, Modigliani, Gauguin, Degas, van Gogh, and Soutine.
Rather than install them behind a single institution’s walls, the Foundation is dispersing them, with a flexible agreement that allows the three museums to collaborate and circulate the works.
“Rather than put conditions on the gift that would become limiting in a future that none of us can know,” said Daniel Edelman, the Foundation’s president, “we created a set of guidelines to encourage these three institutions to collaborate.”
Each museum will receive a distinct slice of the collection: Brooklyn, 29 works, including Modigliani’s "Jean Cocteau" and a rare limestone sculpture; LACMA, six works, notably its first Manet and van Gogh pieces; MoMA, 28 Cézanne-focused pieces, including 15 luminous watercolours.
Before settling, the works will travel as part of an exhibition titled Village Square, debuting at LACMA in 2026.
Beyond a gift, this is a rethinking of what cultural luxury means today. It’s not about ownership. It’s about access, exchange, and resonance. The Pearlman Collection doesn’t just enter public care, it enters public life.
And in an era when so much art feels trapped behind velvet ropes or investment portfolios, that’s the radical part: they let go.
