The Met vs. MoMA Museum War Brewing?

The Metropolitan Museum of Art received Leonard Lauder's $1 billion gift of 81 Cubist masterpieces. Combined with the relocation plans and MoMA's expansion plans, there is now brewing some rivalry between the two museums.

Vanity Fair reports on the controversy in their latest article.

Thomas P. Campbell, director and C.E.O. of the Metropolitan Museum of Art told Vanity Fair in a recent interview, "I want to emphasize we're not trying to take on institutions that are so strong in what they do... We're not trying to compete. What we can do, what we want to do, is tell the narrative of the 20th century and contemporary art in the context of 5,000 years of art history, and our audience wants to see that here. It's a different experience to seeing it at the MoMA or seeing it at the Whitney. Ultimately, I think that's why Leonard made his decision with his gift. He wanted to place Cubism in that longer arc-and his collection probably would have been redundant to MoMA anyway."

MoMA's art director, Glenn D. Lowry states, "I think having both the Met and MoMA often interested in similar artists, if not the same artists, offers a unique opportunity to see those artists either as part of a long historical continuum, which is what the Met can bring to the game, or through the filter of the present, which is what we can bring to the game. That's a huge win for New Yorkers."

Campbell says, "It will be cast as a rivalry. Inevitably, sometimes we're frenemies, because we're working on common ground. We have donors and supporters in common, but I think we've got very complementary goals. I'm a great believer in the notion that a rising tide lifts all boats."

Read the full, detailed article here.