Met Museum To Rebuild Unpopular Wing Thanks To $125 Million Gift

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — The unloved modern wing of the Metropolitan Museum of Art may finally be renovated thanks to a $125 million gift from a trustee, the institution announced Tuesday.

Since 2014, the Met has sought to rebuild the Lila Acheson Wallace Wing, an expansion completed in 1987 whose awkward layout has been derided by visitors and critics for its non-chronological ordering of artworks and its unimpressive appearance, once likened to "an airport in Akron."

But that initial renovation plan faltered due to a lack of funds, and the estimated costs for the design by architect David Chipperfield jumped to $800 million, the New York Times reported Tuesday.

Now, the renovation plans are getting back on their feet thanks to the pricey gift by museum trustee Oscar Tang, a finance executive, and his wife, Agnes Hsu-Tang, an archaeologist and art historian. It is the largest capital gift in the museum's 151-year history.

Once complete, the new modern and contemporary art wing will include 80,000 square feet of galleries and bear the Tangs' names.

"Having witnessed the turbulent times that many continue to endure, we find The Metropolitan Museum of Art to be an exemplary guardian and presenter of artistic heritages across cultures and time," the couple said in a statement.

The couple are both of Chinese heritage, and Oscar Tang was the Met's first American trustee of Asian descent when he joined the museum's board in 1994.

While some have questioned the Met's expansion into the modern art realm given the existence of the Whitney, the Guggenheim and the Museum of Modern Art, the Times reported that the Met's new wing will better accommodate some of its existing treasures, including the 79 cubist paintings it was gifted in 2013.

The wing's renovation will cost about $500 million, according to the Times, and an architect will be chosen by this winter. Once open, the space will reflect the Met's "updated curatorial direction," which has a new focus on interdisciplinary work between the museum's 17 curatorial departments, according to the institution.

"The reimagining of these galleries will allow the Museum to approach 20th‐ and 21st‐century art from a global, encyclopedic, bold, and surprising perspective—all values that reflect the legacy of Oscar and Agnes," museum director Max Hollein said in a statement.