The Henry and Rose Pearlman Foundation announced today that its entire collection will be gifted to three major institutions: the Brooklyn Museum, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), and The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York. Comprising an exceptional group of Impressionist, Post-Impressionist, and modern artworks, the Pearlman Collection will be gifted across the three institutions in a novel sharing arrangement that will enhance access to larger and more diverse audiences through continually changing contexts. Henry Pearlman (1895–1974) began purchasing avant-garde art in 1945 with a landscape by Chaïm Soutine, which led to a self-guided education in 19th and 20th-century European art and a passion for collecting that endured for the rest of his life. From the very start of this collection, he and his wife, Rose, maintained a fundamental interest in sharing their experience of art as widely as possible, instilling populist values in their children and grandchildren that are the Foundation’s inspiration for making this extraordinary gift.
As part of this gift, 29 works will join the Brooklyn Museum’s collection, with exceptional paintings and sculpture by Chaïm Soutine, Paul Gauguin, Edgar Degas, and Amedeo Modigliani, including the latter’s 1916 portrait Jean Cocteau and an extremely rare limestone sculpture, Head (c. 1910–11); LACMA will receive six works, including Edouard Manet’s Young Woman in a Round Hat (c. 1877–79), and Vincent van Gogh’s Tarascon Stagecoach from 1888, the first paintings by either artist to enter the collection; and MoMA will receive 28 works, with a primary focus on Paul Cézanne, including the paintings Mont Sainte-Victoire (1904–06), and Cistern in the Park of Château Noir (c. 1900), as well as 15 of Cézanne’s most luminous watercolors.
In recognition of Henry and Rose’s generous spirit, the collection will travel as an exhibition before being placed under the care of the respective institutions. From February to July 2026, the exhibition Village Square: Gifts of Modern Art from the Pearlman Collection to the Brooklyn Museum, LACMA, and MoMA will be on view at LACMA, and in the fall of 2026 the collection will travel to the Brooklyn Museum. In the near future, MoMA will also present an exhibition of the Pearlman gifts.
“For years we have explored every model we could imagine for the future ownership and guardianship of this collection,” explained Daniel Edelman, President of the Henry and Rose Pearlman Foundation. “We ultimately chose the Brooklyn Museum for the works that tell Henry’s story of discovery and for its commitment to engaging a diverse community; LACMA for works that specifically enhance their ability to innovate around bringing art to where people are; and MoMA, where Cézanne’s works on paper will be shared and cared for by one of the finest departments of drawings and prints that we know, as well as a half dozen of his paintings that together support the artist’s foundational role in the story of modern art. With very different collections, communities, and presentations of art, these three great institutions share an understanding that museums, their audiences, and how those audiences engage with art, are constantly changing. All three are committed to leading that challenge and inspiring others to meet it as well.
“Rather than put conditions on the gift that would become limiting in a future that none of us can know, we created a set of guidelines to encourage these three institutions to collaborate on a flexible movement of the art among them. Our aim is to bring these major works to new audiences, allowing them to be seen in different contexts, reuniting our collection’s works with one another on a regular basis, and perhaps even inspiring collectors and museums to consider new models for ownership of art.”
“We’re thrilled to welcome this extraordinary gift from the Pearlman Collection—the most significant addition to our European art holdings in nearly a century,” said Anne Pasternak, Shelby White and Leon Levy Director of the Brooklyn Museum. “Henry Pearlman collected with the public in mind, believing that modern art should inspire audiences of all backgrounds. Between 1960 and 1986, the Brooklyn Museum presented six exhibitions dedicated to the collection, and now, nearly 40 years after the last of those presentations, we’re honored to give a group of these masterworks a permanent home in the borough where the Pearlman family grew up. As important, we are excited by the Foundation’s strategy of collection sharing with our wonderful peers, MoMA and LACMA.”
“LACMA is deeply grateful to welcome these masterpieces to the museum’s collection, and especially for van Gogh and Manet, two towering figures of 19th-century art, whose paintings will be represented in our collection for the first time,” said Michael Govan, LACMA CEO and Wallis Annenberg Director. “It is also an honor to help fulfill Henry and Rose’s wish to share their collection with our vast public, together with the Brooklyn Museum and MoMA. We look forward to presenting the collection to LACMA’s visitors in an upcoming exhibition next year, as well as in future exhibitions at LACMA and our colleague institutions both locally and around the world.”
“This generous gift significantly expands MoMA’s collection of works by Cézanne and Degas, and underscores the enduring legacy of Henry and Rose’s vision,” said Glenn D. Lowry, The David Rockefeller Director of The Museum of Modern Art. “We are honored to work with our colleagues in Los Angeles and Brooklyn to ensure that the Pearlmans’ commitment to research, scholarship and access, and their belief in the artists they acquired will continue to inspire the public now and in the future.”