Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Althani attended the reception celebrating the start of the collaboration during his New York visit.

A brand new collaboration has been announced between Qatar Museums and The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. It will include the exchange of exhibitions, activities and scholarly collaborations.

Dubbed as the largest art museum in the Americas, The Met has over two million items from its permanent collection spread among 17 curatorial divisions.

Qatar Museums has made a hefty donation to The Metropolitan Museum of Art in honour of the reopening of the fully refurbished and reinvented Museum of Islamic Art, in addition to the 10-year anniversary of the opening of The Met’s rebuilt Islamic Art department galleries.

A gallery at The Met featuring works of art from the Umayyad and Abbasid Periods (7th–13th centuries) has been named the ‘Qatar Gallery’ in appreciation of Qatar’s contributions.

Qatar Museums has loaned pieces from its reputed collections to The Met as part of the collaboration between the institutions. This includes pieces from their 2016 collection ‘Jerusalem in the Middle Ages’, 2015’s ‘Sultans of Deccan India, 1500–1700: Opulence and Fantasy’, ‘The Great Age of the Seljuks’ from 2016, and ‘Monumental Journey: The Daguerreotypes of Girault de Prangey’ from 2019.

“The establishment of the Qatar Gallery at The Metropolitan Museum of Art highlights the collegiality between our institutions and our desire to advance a crucial goal we hold in common, to heighten appreciation everywhere for the art of the Islamic world. We are proud to come together with The Met to honor the beauty, depth, and variety of a global tradition that spans fourteen centuries,” said Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani, Chairperson of Qatar Museums.

During his New York visit, Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani attended the reception ceremony held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art for the collaboration announcement.

“The Met is deeply grateful to Qatar Museums for this extraordinary act of generosity. This gift is the latest instance of the longstanding relationship between our institutions and marks the start of a broad collaboration encompassing the exchange of exhibitions, programs, and scholarly cooperation. This critical support is especially meaningful as we mark the 10th anniversary of the opening of The Met’s renovated galleries, which continue to be a source of great interest and inspiration for our millions of yearly visitors,”said Max Hollein, Marina Kellen French Director of The Met.