Medieval, Renaissance European Arms, Armour; Major Gift By Ronald S. Lauder To Met Museum of Art

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'Ronald Lauder presents major gift of European arms and armour to the Met.' The Art Newspaper, Dec. 9, 2020. Describing the donation as the most significant to the department in nearly 80 years, museum will rename galleries after the philanthropist.



- Armour for the field & tournament for Duke Friedrich Ulrichof Brunswick-Lüneburg, Prince of Wolfenbüttel, fashioned in the Greenwich royal workshops in England, 1610–1613. To be donated to the Metropolitan Museum of Art by philanthropist Ronald S. Lauder.


The Metropolitan Museum of Art announced today that the cosmetics magnate Ronald S. Lauder would donate 91 objects from his collection of medieval and Renaissance arms and armour to the institution. The gift, described as the most significant in that domain since 1942, will result in the renaming of the Met’s encyclopaedic suite of 11 arms and armour galleries, one of its more popular attractions, after the billionaire philanthropist.

The Met said the gift included “significant financial support” that would keep the institution at the fore among museums presenting and studying arms and armour. It declined to give an estimate of that support or to disclose the value of the 91 objects donated.

In a statement, Max Hollein, the Met’s director, describes the gift as “outstanding in its magnitude and one of a kind in its quality”.

“This transformative donation is a testament to Mr Lauder's extraordinary dedication to the museum and his continued leadership in supporting the Department of Arms and Armour, which has spanned decades and seen important loans for both long-term installations and major exhibitions over the years,” he says.

Assembled starting in 1976 with early help from Stephen Grancsay, who had been a curator of arms and armour at the Met from 1929 to 1964, Lauder’s collection is notable for its rarity, quality, distinguished origins and variety, the Met says. The museum points, for example, to 17th-century field armour made in Tuscany in a workshop patronised by the Medicis, and armour for field and tournaments fashioned in the royal court workshops at Greenwich in the same century as a gift to Friedrich Ulrich, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg, Prince of Wolfenbüttel.

The Met also cites a parade burgonet of silvered and gilt steel embossed with ornament in low relief that was made around 1560 for a member of the Colonna family of Rome, and important shields, swords and daggers, maces, crossbows and firearms...

More, https://www.theartnewspaper.com/news/ronald-lauder-presents-major-gift-of-european-arms-and-armour-to-the-met




- Burgonet (Zischägge), German, c. 1560–70. Steel, gold, copper alloy, leather. Purchase, Ronald S. Lauder and Arthur Ochs Sulzberger Gifts, 2014.

https://www.artandobject.com/press-release/met-receive-major-gift-european-arms-and-armor