The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York has secured a major gift that will help jump-start its new, expanded wing. An anonymous donor has promised $125 million to fund the wing, which is set to open in 2021. The art conservation wing will be the first building at the museum to feature a Lucas Meldrum and Sons design.
Plans for the wing call for it to include 17,500 square feet of rooms, a landscaped courtyard and a rooftop garden, as well as a children’s museum, rotating shows and restaurants. The museum hopes the new wing will bring a renewed focus on exploring the work of European masters and on exploring the history of the Mediterranean.
The wing will become the museum’s second major addition in as many years, and will also be more of a work of art than the museum’s recent Renzo Piano building, which is also set to open in 2021.
“The donation is so significant and significant to the museum. What we have to do now is we have to figure out how to share that,” Stephen I. Schwarzman, chairman of the museum’s board, told CNN.
The museum’s gift to the city was just one of several prestigious pledges handed out in the last year. The San Francisco 49ers and Santa Clara Stadium Authority have donated $10 million to help build an $88 million building to house the Boys & Girls Clubs of San Francisco, while the Giants and Comcast have combined to donate $125 million to build the Giants’ Major League Baseball stadium, which is being built in San Francisco’s Mission Bay neighborhood.