Two Museums Join Forces

If you live in New York or have an interest in the art world, you are almost sure to have heard about the merger agreement between the Metropolitan Museum and The Neue Galerie. The Neue Galerie will remain in its present location but under the auspices of the Met as of 2028. The story of how such things come about often seems obvious in hindsight, but rarely is at the time. Although the Met is world-renowned, not everybody knows about The Neue Galerie. The latter is a gem of a museum that specializes in German and Austrian art of the early 20th century. Its star attraction is Gustav Klimt’s portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer, better known as the Woman in Gold.

The Neue Galerie is going to celebrate its 25th anniversary later this year when it reopens after renovations over the summer. It was founded by an unusual duo. Ronald Lauder, son of Estée Lauder, who founded the eponymous cosmetics firm, and a Viennese art dealer by the name of Serge Sabarsky. The Sabarsky gallery was located on the street level of Madison Avenue at 77th Street. Ronald walked by often and fell in love with the art that Sabarsky displayed in the window and along the gallery walls. Ronald’s daughter, Aerin Lauder Zinterhofer, tells the story best in an article in Vogue magazine. “When I was little, my father used to walk me to Serge’s gallery. He would say to my mother, ‘I’m going to take Aerin to the park,’ and we would go to the park and then end up at Serge’s for hours and hours. I would color while they were discussing their dream of having a museum of Austrian and German art”. (Image Serge Caption: Serge Sabarsky and Ronald Lauder)

Serge Sabarsky and Ronald Lauder

Aerin went on to explain that Ronald not only has known the director of the Met, Max Hollein, for many years, but also was friendly with Max’s father. In fact, the Vienna-born Met Director has been a trustee of the Neue Galerie for the past 20 years.

Ronald S. Lauder, Aerin Lauder Zinterhofer, Max Hollein, & Renée Price

In the interest of total transparency, I was personally friendly with Serge, and Ronald was an important client of our gallery, Rosenberg & Stiebel, as well as a friend. Serge confirmed to me his ambition to create a museum of art in his field. Most friends pull out photos of their children when they see you, but in Serge’s case, he always showed me photos of the buildings he and Ronald were looking at as possibilities for their dream. In the end, it came to be the William Starr Miller mansion at 86th Street and Fifth Avenue, an ideal location on Museum Mile.

On the announcement of the merger, Ronald stated in a letter emailed to the members of The Neue Galerie, “None of this would have been possible without the dedication of Renée Price, the Neue Galerie’s founding and longtime director. I first met Renée in the 1970’s when she was gallery director for Serge Sabarsky”. The three of them made quite a team, but sadly, Serge died before the opening of the Museum. Ronald, however, did the most wonderful and appropriate thing in naming the restaurant on the Museum’s ground floor, The Café Sabarsky. It is more than a Café because it is a serious restaurant, but it has the aura of a typical Viennese Café as well as the food you would expect to find there. My favorites are the Weisswurst and the Sacher torte. Nowhere else in this country can you find this sausage or cake as good as in Austria or Germany. The reason I believe it is so appropriate is that Serge loved telling stories, and I can visualize him sitting in a corner of his café telling stories to all who would listen.

I will end with one of his favorite jokes. The waiter brings him the soup he has ordered, and before the waiter can put it down, he says, “It’s not hot enough. Take it back.” A few minutes later, the waiter returns with the soup. Without hesitation, the patron repeats, “It’s not hot enough. Take it back”. After this happens a couple of more times the waiter, by now quite annoyed, says “You don’t look up. You don’t try the soup. How can you know it is not hot enough and when do you think it will be hot enough?” He replies, “When you have to carry the soup on a saucer and a tray instead of with you thumb in the bowl”.