:Museum of Modern Art

The museum attracted 2,190,440 visitors in 2022, making it the 4th most-visited museum in the United States, and the third most-visited U.S. art museum. This attendance was 89 percent higher than in 2021, but still well below the pre-COVID attendance in 2019."The Art Newspaper", retrieved March 28, 2023

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The idea for the Museum of Modern Art was developed in 1929 primarily by Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, wife of John D. Rockefeller Jr., and two of her friends, Lillie P. Bliss and Mary Quinn Sullivan.{{cite web| url=http://www.theartstory.org/museum-moma.htm| title=The Museum of Modern Art| website=The Art Story| access-date=May 12, 2015| url-status=live| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150320063949/http://www.theartstory.org/museum-moma.htm| archive-date=March 20, 2015}} They became known variously as "the Ladies" or "the adamantine ladies".{{cite book| first1=Pam| last1=Meecham| author2=Julie Sheldon| title=Modern Art: A Critical Introduction| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TKhKbOp-W0cC&pg=PA200| year=2000| publisher=Psychology Press| isbn=978-0-415-17235-6| page=200}}{{cite book| first=Leah| last=Dilworth| title=Acts of Possession: Collecting in America| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QH1Ye649ejcC&pg=PA183| year=2003| publisher=Rutgers University Press| isbn=978-0-8135-3272-1| page=183}} They rented modest quarters for the new museum in the Heckscher Building at 730 Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, and it opened to the public on November 7, 1929, nine days after the Wall Street Crash.{{cite book| first1=Lee| last1=Grieveson| author2=Haidee Wasson| title=Inventing Film Studies| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=g2KHO5cCx6IC&pg=PA125| date=November 3, 2008| publisher=Duke University Press| isbn=978-0-8223-8867-8| page=125}}

Abby Rockefeller had invited A. Conger Goodyear, the former president of the board of trustees of the Albright Art Gallery in Buffalo, New York, to become president of the new museum. Abby became treasurer. At the time, it was America's premier museum devoted exclusively to modern art, and the first of its kind in Manhattan to exhibit European modernism.{{cite book| quote=Before the founding of the Museum of Modern Art in 1929, hardly any institution in the country—and none in Manhattan—would exhibit European modernism.| author-link=Michael FitzGerald| first=Michael| last=FitzGerald| title=Making Modernism: Picasso and the Creation of the Market for Twentieth-Century Art| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fj2wtVCWkMoC&q=european+works+manhattan| location=Berkeley| publisher=Univ of Calif Press| date=January 1, 1996| page=120| edition=reprint| isbn=978-0520206533| access-date=July 25, 2020}} One of Rockefeller's early recruits for the museum staff was the noted Japanese-American photographer Soichi Sunami (at that time best known for his portraits of modern dance pioneer Martha Graham), who served the museum as its official documentary photographer from 1930 until 1968.{{cite web| url=http://www.seattlecameraclub.com/soichi_sunami.html| title=Soichi Sunami| website=Seattle Camera Club| first=Kathy| last=Muir| access-date=December 31, 2014}}{{cite news| last=Smith| first=Roberta| title=Review: Picasso, Completely Himself in 3 Dimensions| newspaper=The New York Times| date=September 11, 2015| url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/11/arts/design/review-picasso-sculpture-moma-museum-of-modern-art.html| access-date=December 3, 2015| url-status=live| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151206042145/http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/11/arts/design/review-picasso-sculpture-moma-museum-of-modern-art.html| archive-date=December 6, 2015| df=mdy-all}}

Goodyear enlisted Paul J. Sachs and Frank Crowninshield to join him as founding trustees. Sachs, the associate director and curator of prints and drawings at the Fogg Museum at Harvard University, was referred to in those days as a "collector of curators". Goodyear asked him to recommend a director, and Sachs suggested Alfred H. Barr Jr., a promising young protégé. Under Barr's guidance, the museum's holdings quickly expanded from an initial gift of eight prints and one drawing. Its first successful loan exhibition was in November 1929, displaying paintings by Van Gogh, Gauguin, Cézanne, and Seurat.{{cite book| first1=John Ensor| last1=Harr| author2=Peter J. Johnson| title=The Rockefeller Century: Three Generations of America's Greatest Family| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bqwNAQAAMAAJ&q=museum+modern+art+loan+exhibition| location=New York| publisher=Charles Scribner's Sons| year=1988| pages=217–18| isbn=978-0684189369}}

First housed in six rooms of galleries and offices on the 12th floor of Manhattan's Heckscher Building,{{cite web| url=http://www.thecityreview.com/crown.html| title=The Crown Building (formerly the Heckscher Building)| first=Carter B.| last=Horsley| work=The City Review| url-status=dead| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160308202930/http://thecityreview.com/crown.html| archive-date=March 8, 2016| df=mdy-all| access-date=January 21, 2008}} on the corner of Fifth Avenue and 57th Street, the museum moved into three more temporary locations within the next 10 years. Abby Rockefeller's husband, John D. Rockefeller Jr., was adamantly opposed to the museum (as well as to modern art itself) and refused to release funds for the venture, which had to be obtained from other sources and resulted in the frequent shifts of location. Nevertheless, he eventually donated the land for the current site of the museum, plus other gifts over time, and thus became in effect one of its greatest benefactors.{{cite book| first=Bernice| last=Kert| title=Abby Aldrich Rockefeller: The Woman in the Family| url=https://archive.org/details/abbyaldrichrocke00kert/page/n9/mode/2up?q=John+modern+art| location=New York| publisher=Random House| year=1993| pages=21, 376, 386| url-access=registration| isbn=978-0812970449}} Under Alfred H. Barr Jr.'s direction, MoMA embraced a multidisciplinary approach to modern art by being the first museum to establish departments dedicated to photography and film.{{Cite web |title=The Museum of Modern Art history {{!}} MoMA |url=https://www.moma.org/about/mission-statement/history |access-date=December 7, 2024 |website=The Museum of Modern Art |language=en}}

During that time, the museum initiated many more exhibitions of noted artists, such as the lone Vincent van Gogh exhibition on November 4, 1935. Containing an unprecedented 66 oils and 50 drawings from the Netherlands, as well as poignant excerpts from the artist's letters, it was a major public success due to Barr's arrangement of the exhibit, and became "a precursor to the hold van Gogh has to this day on the contemporary imagination".{{sfn|Kert|1993|page=376}}

The museum also gained international prominence with the hugely successful and now famous Picasso retrospective of 1939–40, held in conjunction with the Art Institute of Chicago. In its range of presented works, it represented a significant reinterpretation of Picasso for future art scholars and historians. This was wholly masterminded by Barr, a Picasso enthusiast, and the exhibition lionized Picasso as the greatest artist of the time, setting the model for all the museum's retrospectives that were to follow.{{sfn|FitzGerald|1996|pages=243–262}} Boy Leading a Horse was briefly contested over ownership by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum.{{cite news| url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/08/arts/design/08muse.html?_r=0| first=Carol| last=Vogel| title=Two Museums Go to Court Over the Right to Picassos| newspaper=The New York Times| date=December 8, 2007| archive-date=July 1, 2017| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170701041718/http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/08/arts/design/08muse.html?_r=0}} In 1941, MoMA hosted the ground-breaking exhibition, "Indian Art of the United States", curated by Frederic Huntington Douglas and Rene d'Harnoncourt, that changed the way Native American arts were viewed by the public and exhibited in art museums.

Abby Rockefeller's son Nelson was selected by the board of trustees to become its president, in 1939, at the age of 30; he was a flamboyant leader and became the prime instigator and funding source of MoMA's publicity, acquisitions, and subsequent expansion into new headquarters on 53rd Street. His brother, David Rockefeller, joined the museum's board of trustees in 1948, and took over the presidency when Nelson was elected governor of New York in 1958.

David Rockefeller subsequently employed noted architect Philip Johnson to redesign the museum garden, and named it in honor of his mother, the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Sculpture Garden. The Rockefeller family and he have retained a close association with the museum throughout its history, with the Rockefeller Brothers Fund funding the institution since 1947. Both David Rockefeller Jr. and Sharon Percy Rockefeller (wife of former senator Jay Rockefeller) sit on the board of trustees.{{cn|date=May 2021}} After the Rockefeller Guest House at 242 East 52nd Street was completed in 1950, some MoMA functions were held in the house until 1964.{{cite web|url=http://s-media.nyc.gov/agencies/lpc/lp/2079.pdf|title=Rockefeller Guest House|date=December 5, 2000|publisher=New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission|access-date=May 1, 2021}}{{Cite New York 1960|pages=305–306}}

In 1937, MoMA had shifted to offices and basement galleries in the Time-Life Building in Rockefeller Center. Its permanent and current home, now renovated, designed in the International Style by the modernist architects Philip L. Goodwin and Edward Durell Stone, opened to the public on May 10, 1939, attended by an illustrious company of 6,000 people, and with an opening address via radio from the White House by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.{{cite magazine| url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,761401,00.html| title=Art: Beautiful Doings| date=May 22, 1939| magazine=Time| url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080129180145/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,761401,00.html| archive-date=January 29, 2008}}

In 1958, workers re-clad the MoMA building's second floor with a glass facade overlooking the sculpture garden.{{Cite news |date=September 5, 1958 |title=Modern Art Museum Puts Up Glass Facade |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1958/09/05/archives/modern-art-museum-puts-up-glass-facade.html |access-date=April 7, 2023 |issn=0362-4331}}

On April 15, 1958, a fire on the second floor destroyed an {{convert|18|ft|m|adj=mid|-long}} Monet Water Lilies painting (the current Monet Water Lilies was acquired shortly after the fire as a replacement). The fire was started by workmen installing air conditioning, who were smoking near paint cans, sawdust, and a canvas drop cloth. One worker was killed by the fire, and several firefighters were treated for smoke inhalation.

Most of the paintings on the floor had previously been removed from the work area, although large paintings including the Monet had remained in place. Art works on the third and fourth floors were evacuated to the Whitney Museum of American Art, which abutted on the 54th Street side. Among the paintings that were rescued was A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, which had been on loan from the Art Institute of Chicago. Visitors and employees trapped above the fire were evacuated to the roof, and then jumped to the roof of an adjoining townhouse.{{cite journal| url=http://greg.org/archive/2010/09/02/moma_on_fire.html| title=MOMA on Fire| website=the making of: movies, art, &c.| first=Greg| last=Allen| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140122120634/http://greg.org/archive/2010/09/02/moma_on_fire.html| archive-date=January 22, 2014| date=September 2, 2010| access-date=July 25, 2020}}

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In 1969, the MoMA was at the center of a controversy over its decision to withdraw funding from the iconic antiwar poster And Babies. In 1969, the Art Workers Coalition, a group of New York City artists who opposed the Vietnam War, in collaboration with Museum of Modern Art members Arthur Drexler and Elizabeth Shaw, created an iconic protest poster called And babies.{{cite book| editor-first=M. Paul| editor-last=Holsinger| chapter=And Babies| chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Oe4AOVHkJ9oC&pg=PA363| title=War and American Popular Culture: A Hisstorical Encyclopedia| isbn=978-0313299087| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160512152537/https://books.google.com/books?id=Oe4AOVHkJ9oC&pg=PA363| archive-date=May 12, 2016| publisher=Greenwood Press| year=1999| page=363}} The poster uses an image by photojournalist Ronald L. Haeberle and references the My Lai Massacre. The MoMA had promised to fund and circulate the poster, but after seeing the {{convert|2|x|3|ft|adj=on}} poster, MoMA pulled financing for the project at the last minute.{{cite book| last=Frascina| first=Francis| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QTq8AAAAIAAJ&q=poster+my+lai| title=Art, Politics, and Dissent: Aspects of the Art Left in Sixties America| year=1999| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160610074356/https://books.google.com/books?id=QTq8AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA175| archive-date=June 10, 2016| pages=175–186| publisher=Manchester Univ Press| isbn=978-0719044694}}{{cite book| last1=Sela| first1=Peter Howard| author2=Susan Landauer| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nBIM6iKsaoEC&pg=PT37| title=Art of Engagement: Visual Politics in California and Beyond| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160610204142/https://books.google.com/books?id=nBIM6iKsaoEC&pg=PT37| archive-date=June 10, 2016| page=46| date=January 9, 2006| publisher=Univ of California Press| isbn=978-0520240520}} MoMA's board of trustees included Nelson Rockefeller and William S. Paley (head of CBS), who reportedly "hit the ceiling" on seeing the proofs of the poster. The poster was included shortly thereafter in MoMA's Information exhibition of July 2 to September 20, 1970, curated by Kynaston McShine.{{cite book| first=Kenneth R.| last=Allan| chapter=Understanding Information| editor-first=Michael| editor-last=Corris| title=Conceptual Art, Theory, Myth, and Practice| location=Cambridge| publisher=Cambridge University Press| date=December 15, 2003| pages=147–148| isbn=978-0521823883}}

In 1971, after protests outside the museum meant to spur inclusion of African Americans Richard Hunt was the first African American sculptor to have a major solo retrospective at the museum.{{cite book |others=Introduction by Courtney J. Martin; Interview by Adrienne Childs |author1=John Yau |author2=Jordan Carter |author3=LeRonn Brooks |title=Richard Hunt |date=2022 |publisher=Gregory R. Miller & Co. |isbn=9781941366448 |url=https://www.artbook.com/9781941366448.html}}

In 1983, the museum more than doubled its gallery space, increased the curatorial department by 30%, and added an auditorium, two restaurants, and a bookstore in conjunction with the construction of the 56-story Museum Tower adjoining the museum. Architect César Pelli led the design project for the expansion.{{cite web |url=http://pcparch.com/project/museum-of-modern-art |title=Museum of Modern Art Expansion |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160126075909/http://pcparch.com/project/museum-of-modern-art |date=2015 |archive-date=January 26, 2016 |publisher=Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects |location=New Haven, CT}} Despite these expansion projects, MoMA's physical space had never been able to accommodate its growing collection.{{cite book |last=Luna |first=Ian |title=New New York: Architecture of a City |publisher=Rizzoli |year=2003 |isbn=978-0-8478-2621-6 |oclc=972013228}}{{rp|page=205}}

On June 14, 1984, the Women Artists Visibility Event (W.A.V.E.), a demonstration of 400 women artists, was held in front of the newly renovated Museum of Modern Art to protest the lack of female representation in its opening exhibition, "An International Survey of Recent Painting and Sculpture". The exhibition featured 165 artists. Only 14 of those were women.{{Cite news|last=Lubell|first=Ellen|date=June 19, 1984|title="Women March on MOMA"|work=The Village Voice}}{{Cite news|last=Shepard|first=Joan|date=June 15, 1984|title="Women Artists Picket MOMA"|work=New York Daily News}}

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By the end of the 20th century, MoMA had 100,000 objects in its collection, an increase from the 40,000 items it had in 1970. After the Dorset Hotel adjacent to the museum was placed for sale in 1996, MoMA quickly purchased it.{{Cite news |last=Bohlen |first=Celestine |date=April 1, 2002 |title=The Modern On the Move, Out to Queens; Museum Hopes Art Lovers Find Its Temporary Home |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2002/04/01/arts/modern-move-queens-museum-hopes-art-lovers-find-its-temporary-home.html |access-date=April 7, 2023 |issn=0362-4331}} The next year, the museum began planning a major renovation and expansion,{{rp|page=205}} selecting Japanese architect Yoshio Taniguchi in December 1997.{{Cite news |last=Muschamp |first=Herbert |date=December 9, 1997 |title=An Appraisal; The Modern Picks Taniguchi's Expansion Plan |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1997/12/09/arts/an-appraisal-the-modern-picks-taniguchi-s-expansion-plan.html |access-date=April 7, 2023 |issn=0362-4331}}{{Cite news |last=Scaduto |first=Anthony |date=December 9, 1997 |title=A New Look for MOMA |pages=10 |work=Newsday |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/122439381/a-new-look-for-momaanthony-scaduto/ |access-date=April 7, 2023}} The project nearly doubled the space for MoMA's exhibitions and programs, and features {{convert|630000|sqft|m2}} of space.{{rp|page=205}} Taniguchi's initial plan called for two structures, one each to the west and east of the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Sculpture Garden, which was to be enlarged from its original configuration.{{rp|page=|pages=205–206}} The Peggy and David Rockefeller Building on the western portion of the site houses the main exhibition gallerie, while the Lewis B. and Dorothy Cullman Education and Research Building provides space for classrooms, auditoriums, teacher-training workshops, and the museum's expanded library and archives.{{rp|page=207}}

MoMA began the year 2000 with the activation of a 1999 agreement formalizing its affiliation with the P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center, an independent contemporary art organization which had been founded in nearby Long Island City, Queens, New York in 1971. An agreement provided for a 10-year merger process, allowing gradual coordination and consolidation of programming and staff. The location in Queens, a re-purposed former public school, would remain open to the public indefinitely, as an experimental exhibition and performance space. In addition, the PS1 space would be available while the 53rd Street complex was closed for major renovations.{{cite news |last1=Vogel |first1=Carol |title=A Museum Merger: The Modern Meets The Ultramodern |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1999/02/02/arts/a-museum-merger-the-modern-meets-the-ultramodern.html |access-date=June 17, 2023 |work=The New York Times |date=February 2, 1999}}

MoMA broke ground on the 53rd Street project in May 2001.{{Cite news |date=May 11, 2001 |title=MoMA to begin $650M expansion |pages=3 |work=The Journal News |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/122439335/moma-to-begin-650m-expansion/ |access-date=April 7, 2023}} Over the next year, the museum gradually closed two-thirds of its galleries and moved some of its exhibits online.{{Cite news |last=Mirapaul |first=Matthew |date=November 8, 2001 |title=News Watch: Art; Squeezed by a Renovation, the Modern Finds Space Online |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2001/11/08/technology/news-watch-art-squeezed-by-a-renovation-the-modern-finds-space-online.html |access-date=April 7, 2023 |issn=0362-4331}} The Midtown building closed completely in May 2002; the next month, MoMA relocated its public-facing operations to a temporary facility called MoMA QNS in Long Island City, Queens.{{Cite news |last=Forgey |first=Benjamin |date=June 27, 2002 |title=MoMa becomes staple of Queens, moves to former Swingline factory |pages=25 |work=The Post-Star |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/122439053/moma-becomes-staple-of-queens-moves-to/ |access-date=April 7, 2023}}{{Cite news |last=Kimmelman |first=Michael |date=June 28, 2002 |title=Art Review; Queens, The New Modern Mecca |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2002/06/28/arts/art-review-queens-the-new-modern-mecca.html |access-date=April 7, 2023 |issn=0362-4331}}

The overall project, including an increase in MoMA's endowment to cover operating expenses, cost $858 million in total;{{cite web |last=Swanson |first=Stevenson |date=November 16, 2004 |title=NYC's MoMA unveils bright new quarters |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-2004-11-16-0411160278-story.html |access-date=April 7, 2023 |website=Chicago Tribune}}{{Cite news |last=Vogel |first=Carol |date=April 7, 2004 |title=The Modern's Old Home Is Almost Habitable |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/07/arts/the-modern-s-old-home-is-almost-habitable.html |access-date=April 7, 2023 |issn=0362-4331}} the renovation of the Midtown Manhattan building alone cost $425 million.{{cite web |date=November 15, 2004 |title=MoMA reopens after dramatic renovation |url=https://www.today.com/popculture/moma-reopens-after-dramatic-renovation-wbna6493335 |access-date=April 7, 2023 |website=TODAY.com}}{{Cite news |last=Chan |first=Sewell |date=November 20, 2004 |title=For Museum of Modern Art, a Homecoming |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/20/nyregion/for-museum-of-modern-art-a-homecoming.html |access-date=April 7, 2023 |issn=0362-4331}} During the project, new gallery space was added on the first floor of the adjacent Museum Tower, and mechanical spaces and equipment within the tower were added or relocated.{{Cite news |last=Barron |first=James |date=November 12, 2004 |title=A Grand Renovation at the Museum of Modern Art Spurs a Makeover Next Door, Too |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/12/nyregion/a-grand-renovation-at-the-museum-of-modern-art-spurs-a-makeover.html |access-date=April 7, 2023 |issn=0362-4331}} MoMA reopened on November 20, 2004.{{cite web |last=Kamin |first=Blair |date=November 21, 2004 |title=Reimagining MoMA |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-2004-11-21-0411210582-story.html |access-date=April 7, 2023 |website=Chicago Tribune}}{{Cite news |last=Cave |first=Damien |date=November 21, 2004 |title=A Day to Savor Art as the Modern Reopens |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/21/nyregion/a-day-to-savor-art-as-the-modern-reopens.html |access-date=April 7, 2023 |issn=0362-4331}}

The renovation received mixed reception. John Updike wrote in The New Yorker that the new structure "has the enchantment of a bank after hours, of a honeycomb emptied of honey and flooded with a soft glow",{{cite magazine |last=Updike |first=John |date=November 15, 2004 |title=Invisible Cathedral |url=https://newyorker.com/archive/2004/11/15/041115crat_atlarge?currentPage=all |url-status=live |magazine=The New Yorker |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140926012458/http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2004/11/15/invisible-cathedral?currentPage=all |archive-date=September 26, 2014 |access-date=December 12, 2010 |quote=}} while Roberta Smith of The New York Times said MoMA had an "overly refined building, whose poor layout shortchanges the world's greatest collection of Modern art".{{Cite news |last=Smith |first=Roberta |date=November 1, 2006 |title=Tate Modern's Rightness Versus MoMA's Wrongs |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/01/arts/design/01tate.html |url-status=live |access-date=April 7, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071014051226/http://nytimes.com/2006/11/01/arts/design/01tate.html?ei=5088&en=93bb317dd36f453a&ex=1320037200&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&pagewanted=print |archive-date=October 14, 2007 |issn=0362-4331}} Witold Rybczynski of Slate wrote: "Most of what has been written about the new MoMA has lauded its minimalist interiors, which, even if they don't exactly disappear, have an opulently ethereal quality. [...] Yet this urban building is not experienced only from inside—and, seen from the sidewalk, Taniguchi's architecture does anything but fade away."{{cite magazine| last=Rybczynski| first=Witold| title=Street Cred: Another Way of Looking at the New MOMA| access-date=February 27, 2007| magazine=Slate| date=March 30, 2005| url=http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/architecture/2005/03/street_cred.html| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120120103621/http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/architecture/2005/03/street_cred.html| archive-date=January 20, 2012| url-status=live}}

MoMA, which owned a {{cvt|17000|ft2|adj=on}} lot at 53 West 53rd Street west of its existing building, sold it to developer Gerald D. Hines for $125 million in January 2007.{{Cite news |last=Pogrebin |first=Robin |author-link=Robin Pogrebin |date=April 10, 2013 |title=12-Year-Old Building at MoMA Is Doomed |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/11/arts/design/moma-to-raze-ex-american-folk-art-museum-building.html |url-status=live |access-date=June 10, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200427015102/https://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/11/arts/design/moma-to-raze-ex-american-folk-art-museum-building.html |archive-date=April 27, 2020 |issn=0362-4331}}{{cite web |last=McKeough |first=Tim |date=January 30, 2008 |title=Nouvel Designs Towering Slender Neighbor for MoMA |url=https://www.architecturalrecord.com/articles/4208-nouvel-designs-towering-slender-neighbor-for-moma |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210711022817/https://www.architecturalrecord.com/articles/4208-nouvel-designs-towering-slender-neighbor-for-moma |archive-date=July 11, 2021 |access-date=July 11, 2021 |website=Architectural Record}} Hines planned to build a skyscraper called Tower Verre on the site.{{Cite web |title=53 West 53 |url=https://www.skyscrapercenter.com/building/53-west-53/317 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191216075158/http://www.skyscrapercenter.com:80/building/53-west-53/317 |archive-date=December 16, 2019 |access-date=November 30, 2008 |publisher=SkyscraperPage.com}} Work on the tower was delayed because of a lack of funding following the Great Recession.{{cite web |last=Stabile |first=Tom |date=November 15, 2016 |title=Sleek Midtown Tower Hides Complex Supports |url=https://www.enr.com/articles/40906-sleek-midtown-tower-hides-complex-supports |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170520014727/http://www.enr.com:80/articles/40906-sleek-midtown-tower-hides-complex-supports |archive-date=May 20, 2017 |access-date=July 9, 2021 |website=Engineering News-Record}}{{Cite news |last=Ouroussoff |first=Nicolai |author-link=Nicolai Ouroussoff |date=December 19, 2008 |title=It Was Fun Till the Money Ran Out |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/21/arts/design/21ouro.html |url-status=live |access-date=June 10, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170329004118/http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/21/arts/design/21ouro.html |archive-date=March 29, 2017 |issn=0362-4331}}

File:MoMA Museum shop (1) 2021 jeh.jpg

In 2010, MoMA completed its merger with the P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center in Long Island City, New York, formally renaming it as MoMA PS1.{{cite news |last1=Vogel |first1=Carol |title=Tweaking a Name in Long Island City |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/30/arts/design/30vogel.html |access-date=June 17, 2023 |work=The New York Times |date=April 29, 2010}}

In 2011, MoMA acquired an adjacent building that housed the American Folk Art Museum on West 53rd Street. The building had been completed in 2001 to designs by Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects and was sold in connection with a financial restructuring of the Folk Art Museum.{{cite news| url=https://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/11/nyregion/moma-to-buy-american-folk-art-museum-building.html| title=MoMA to Buy Building Used by Museum of Folk Art| last=Taylor| first=Kate|date=May 10, 2011| newspaper=The New York Times| access-date=September 25, 2014| url-status=live| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110527020331/http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/11/nyregion/moma-to-buy-american-folk-art-museum-building.html?_r=1| archive-date=May 27, 2011}} In January 2014, MoMA decided to raze the American Folk Art Museum, which was between MoMA's existing structure and the proposed tower at 53 West 53rd Street.{{cite web |last=Raskin |first=Laura |date=May 12, 2015 |title=High flyer: a vision of Jean Nouvel's addition to New York's soaring skyline |url=https://www.wallpaper.com/architecture/high-flyer-a-vision-of-jean-nouvels-addition-to-new-yorks-soaring-skyline |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160509130528/http://www.wallpaper.com:80/architecture/high-flyer-a-vision-of-jean-nouvels-addition-to-new-yorks-soaring-skyline? |archive-date=May 9, 2016 |access-date=July 10, 2021 |website=Wallpaper*}}{{Cite news |last=Pogrebin |first=Robin |author-link=Robin Pogrebin |date=January 8, 2014 |title=Ambitious Redesign of MoMA Doesn't Spare a Notable Neighbor |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/09/arts/design/a-grand-redesign-of-moma-does-not-spare-a-notable-neighbor.html |url-status=live |access-date=July 10, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140709031532/http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/09/arts/design/a-grand-redesign-of-moma-does-not-spare-a-notable-neighbor.html |archive-date=July 9, 2014 |issn=0362-4331}} The architectural community protested the planned demolition in part because that building was relatively new, having been completed in 2001.{{cite web |last=Chaban |first=Matt |date=January 9, 2014 |title=MoMA to demolish Folk Art Museum building despite acclaimed design, critics' rage |url=https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/moma-demolish-folk-art-museum-opposition-article-1.1570456 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210712010126/https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/moma-demolish-folk-art-museum-opposition-article-1.1570456 |archive-date=July 12, 2021 |access-date=July 12, 2021 |website=New York Daily News}} MoMA decided to proceed with the demolition because the American Folk Art Museum was in the way of MoMA's planned expansion, which included exhibition space within 53 West 53rd Street.{{Cite web |date=April 14, 2014 |title=MoMA Moves Forward with Folk Art Museum Demolition |url=https://news.artnet.com/art-world/moma-moves-forward-with-folk-art-museum-demolition-10154 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210710173937/https://news.artnet.com/art-world/moma-moves-forward-with-folk-art-museum-demolition-10154 |archive-date=July 10, 2021 |access-date=July 10, 2021 |website=Artnet News |language=en-US}}{{Cite news |last=Pogrebin |first=Robin |author-link=Robin Pogrebin |date=April 15, 2014 |title=Architects Mourn Former Folk Art Museum Building |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/16/arts/design/architects-mourn-former-folk-art-museum-building.html |url-status=live |access-date=July 10, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171109023533/https://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/16/arts/design/architects-mourn-former-folk-art-museum-building.html |archive-date=November 9, 2017 |issn=0362-4331}} The tower, designed by Jean Nouvel and called 53W53, received construction approval in 2014.{{cite web| url=http://citty.com/2014/09/19/53w53moma-towertower-verre-finally-going| title=53W53/MoMA Tower/Tower Verre Finally Going Up| website=citty.com| access-date=May 28, 2015| url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150523043820/http://citty.com/2014/09/19/53w53moma-towertower-verre-finally-going| archive-date=May 23, 2015}}

Around the same time as 53W53 was approved, MoMA unveiled its expansion plans, which encompass space in 53W53, as well as an annex on the former site of the American Folk Art Museum. The expansion plan was developed by the architecture firm Diller Scofidio + Renfro in collaboration with Gensler. Following a controversy over the plans, MoMA split the plan into three phases in January 2016. The plan added {{convert|50000|ft2}} of gallery space to 53W53, in a new annex designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro, and in the existing building, as well as expanded lobbies.{{cite web | last=Wachs | first=Audrey | title=Ever-growing MoMA splits its controversial expansion plans into three phases | website=The Architect's Newspaper | date=January 28, 2016 | url=https://www.archpaper.com/2016/01/ever-growing-moma-splits-controversial-expansion-plans-three-phases/ | access-date=April 7, 2023}}{{cite web | last=Maloney | first=Jennifer | title=Museum of Modern Art Unveils Revised Expansion Plans |work=The Wall Street Journal |issn=0099-9660 | date=January 26, 2016 | url=http://www.wsj.com/articles/museum-of-modern-art-unveils-revised-expansion-plans-1453845600 | access-date=April 7, 2023}} In June 2017, the first phase of the $450 million expansion was completed.{{cite news| agency=Associated Press|title=MoMA expanding its Manhattan space, view of NYC outdoors| work=WTOP News| date=June 2, 2017| url=https://wtop.com/arts/2017/06/moma-expanding-its-manhattan-space-view-of-nyc-outdoors/| access-date=January 16, 2018| url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180115190218/https://wtop.com/arts/2017/06/moma-expanding-its-manhattan-space-view-of-nyc-outdoors/| archive-date=January 15, 2018| df=mdy-all}}{{cite web | title=Go Inside MoMA's Major New Expansion | website=Architectural Digest | date=June 1, 2017 | url=https://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/moma-expansion-diller-scofidio-renfro | access-date=April 7, 2023}}

{{blockquote|Spread over three floors of the art mecca off Fifth Avenue are 15,000 square-feet (about 1,400 m²) of reconfigured galleries, a new, second gift shop, a redesigned cafe and espresso bar, and facing the sculpture garden, two lounges graced with black marble quarried in France.}}

The museum expansion project increased the publicly accessible space by 25% compared to when the Tanaguchi building was completed in 2004.{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/01/arts/design/moma-redesign-art-expansion.html| title=MoMA's Makeover Rethinks the Presentation of Art| last=Pogrebin| first=Robin| date=June 1, 2017| newspaper=The New York Times| access-date=November 8, 2017| url-status=live| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171109024052/https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/01/arts/design/moma-redesign-art-expansion.html| archive-date=November 9, 2017| language=en-US}} The expansion allowed for even more of the museum's collection of nearly 200,000 works to be displayed. The new spaces also allow visitors to enjoy a relaxing sit-down in one of the two new lounges, or even have a fully catered meal. The two new lounges include "The Marlene Hess and James D. Zirin Lounge" and "The Daniel and Jane Och Lounge".{{cite web| last=Gannon| first=Devin| title=MoMA reveals final design for $400M expansion| website=6sqft| date=May 1, 2017| url=https://www.6sqft.com/momas-400m-expansion-aims-to-break-down-boundaries/ | access-date=January 16, 2018 | url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180116135615/https://www.6sqft.com/momas-400m-expansion-aims-to-break-down-boundaries/| archive-date=January 16, 2018| df=mdy-all}} The goal of this renovation is to help expand the collection and display of work by women, Latinos, Blacks, Asians, and other marginalized communities. In connection with the renovation, MoMA shifted its approach to presenting its holdings, moving away from separating the collection by disciplines such as painting, design, and works on paper toward an integrated chronological presentation that encompasses all areas of the collection.

The Museum of Modern Art closed for another round of major renovations from June to October 2019.{{cite news| url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/05/arts/design/moma-museum-renovation.html| title=MoMA to Close, Then Open Doors to More Expansive View of Art| last=Pogrebin| first=Robin|date=February 5, 2019| newspaper=The New York Times| access-date=February 21, 2019| language=en-US| issn=0362-4331}}{{cite news| url=https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/2019/10/16/moma-reopens-museum-modern-art-new-york-opens-oct-21/3983343002/| title='A new MoMA': New York's Museum of Modern Art reopening after $450 million expansion| last=Hines| first=Morgan| date=October 16, 2019| newspaper=USA Today| language=en-US| access-date=November 18, 2019}} Upon reopening on October 21, 2019, MoMA added {{convert|47,000|ft2|m2}} of gallery space, bringing its total floor area to {{Convert|708,000|ft2||abbr=}}.{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/21/nyregion/moma-reopening.html| title=MoMA Reopening: Everything You Need to Know| last=Paybarah| first=Azi| date=October 21, 2019| newspaper=The New York Times| access-date=November 18, 2019| language=en-US| issn=0362-4331}}{{cite news| url=https://archpaper.com/2019/10/moma-reopens/| title=MoMA reopens with a $450 million mega-expansion and slick renovation| date=October 16, 2019| newspaper=The Architect's Newspaper| language=en-US| access-date=November 18, 2019}}

The MoMA occasionally has sponsored and hosted temporary exhibition houses, which have reflected seminal ideas in architectural history.

• 1949: exhibition house by Marcel Breuer
• 1950: exhibition house by Gregory Ain{{cite book| last=Denzer| first=Anthony| title=Gregory Ain: The Modern Home as Social Commentary| publisher=Rizzoli Publications|year=2008|url=http://www.rizzoliusa.com/catalog/results.pperl?title_auth_isbn=denzer&submit.x=0&submit.y=0&submit=submit| isbn=978-0-8478-3062-6 | url-status=dead| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080617114603/http://www.rizzoliusa.com/catalog/results.pperl?title_auth_isbn=denzer&submit.x=0&submit.y=0&submit=submit| archive-date=June 17, 2008| access-date=May 24, 2008}}
• 1955: Japanese Exhibition House by Junzo Yoshimura, reinstalled in Philadelphia, PA in 1957–58 and known now as Shofuso Japanese House and Garden
• 2008: Prefabricated houses planned{{cite web |url=https://assets.moma.org/documents/moma_press-release_387164.pdf |title=MoMA Announces Selection of Five Architects to Display Prefabricated Homes Outside Museum in Summer 2008 |website=moma.org}}{{cite web |url=https://www.moma.org/interactives/exhibitions/2008/homedelivery/ |title=Home Delivery: Frabricating the Modern Dwelling |website=moma.org}}{{cite news| last=Pogrebin| first=Robin|author-link=Robin Pogrebin| title=Is Prefab Fab? MoMA Plans a Show| newspaper=The New York Times| date=January 8, 2008| url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/08/arts/design/08moma.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=prefab+fab&st=nyt&oref=slogin| access-date=May 24, 2008| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140926012018/http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/08/arts/design/08moma.html?_r=2&scp=1&sq=prefab+fab&st=nyt&oref=slogin&| archive-date=September 26, 2014| url-status=live}} by:
• Kieran Timberlake Architects
• Lawrence Sass
• System Architects: Jeremy Edmiston and Douglas Gauthier
• Leo Kaufmann Architects
• Richard Horden

File:MULTIPLICITY OF IDENTITIES IN THE MOMA’S COLLECTION.svg

{{see also|List of works in the Museum of Modern Art#Department of Painting and Sculpture}}

File:Les Demoiselles d'Avignon.jpg's 1907 portrait Les Demoiselles d'Avignon]]

File:WLA moma Reflections of Clouds on the Water-Lily Pond Monet.jpg's early 20th century landscape Reflections of Clouds on the Water-Lily Pond]]

The MoMA is organized around six curatorial departments: Architecture and Design, Drawings and Prints, Film, Media and Performance, Painting and Sculpture, and Photography.{{cite web | url=https://www.moma.org/collection/about/curatorial-departments | title=Curatorial departments | MoMA }}

The MoMA's holdings include more than 150,000 individual pieces in addition to roughly 22,000 films and 4 million film stills. (Access to the collection of film stills ended in 2002, and the collection is stored in a vault in Hamlin, Pennsylvania.{{cite book| first1=Boyd| last1=McDonald| author2=William E. Jones| title=Cruising the Movies: A Sexual Guide to Oldies on TV| location=South Pasadena, Calif| publisher=Semiotext(e)| year=2015| isbn=978-1584351719| page=31}}). The collection houses such important and familiar works as the following:

• Francis Bacon, Painting (1946)
• Umberto Boccioni, The City Rises
• Paul Cézanne, [http://www.moma.org/collection/object.php?object_id=78296 The Bather]
• Marc Chagall, I and the Village
• Giorgio de Chirico, The Song of Love
• Willem de Kooning, Woman I
• Salvador Dalí, The Persistence of Memory
• Pablo Picasso, Three Musicians
• Max Ernst, [http://www.moma.org/collection/object.php?object_id=79293 Two Children Are Threatened by a Nightingale]
• Paul Gauguin, [http://www.moma.org/collection/object.php?object_id=83387 Te aa no areois] (The Seed of the Areoi)
• Richard Hunt, Arachne
• Jasper Johns, Flag
• Frida Kahlo, [http://www.moma.org/collection/object.php?object_id=78333 Self-Portrait With Cropped Hair]
• Roy Lichtenstein, Drowning Girl
• René Magritte, The Empire of Lights
• René Magritte, False Mirror
• Kazimir Malevich, White on White 1918
• Henri Matisse, The Dance
• Henri Matisse, L'Atelier Rouge
• Piet Mondrian, Broadway Boogie-Woogie
• Claude Monet, Water Lilies triptych
• Barnett Newman, Broken Obelisk
• Barnett Newman, Vir Heroicus Sublimis (Man, Heroic and Sublime)
• Pablo Picasso, Les Demoiselles d'Avignon
• Jackson Pollock, [http://www.moma.org/collection/object.php?object_id=78386 One: Number 31, 1950]
• Henri Rousseau, The Dream, 1910
• Henri Rousseau, The Sleeping Gypsy
• Vincent van Gogh, The Starry Night
• Andy Warhol, Campbell's Soup Cans
• Andrew Wyeth, Christina's World

{{gallery|mode=packed

|File:VanGogh-starry night ballance1.jpg|{{nowrap|Vincent van Gogh}}, {{nowrap|The Starry Night}}, 1889

|File:Van Gogh The Olive Trees..jpg|{{nowrap|Vincent van Gogh}}, Olive Trees (Van Gogh series), 1889

|File:Henri Rousseau 010.jpg|{{nowrap|Henri Rousseau}}, {{nowrap|The Sleeping Gypsy}}, 1897

|File:Henri Matisse, 1909, La danse (I), Museum of Modern Art.jpg|{{nowrap|Henri Matisse}}, {{nowrap|The Dance I}}, 1909

|File:Picasso three musicians moma 2006.jpg|{{nowrap|Pablo Picasso}}, {{nowrap|Three Musicians}}, 1921

|File:Henri Rousseau 005.jpg|{{nowrap|Henri Rousseau}}, {{nowrap|The Dream}}, 1910

|File:Atelier rouge matisse 1.jpg|{{nowrap|Henri Matisse}}, {{nowrap|L'Atelier Rouge}}, 1911

|File:WLA moma Umberto Boccioni Dynamism of a Soccer Player 1913.jpg|Umberto Boccioni, Dynamism of a Soccer Player, 1913

|File:Kazimir Malevich - 'Suprematist Composition- White on White', oil on canvas, 1918, Museum of Modern Art.jpg|{{nowrap|Kazimir Malevich}}, {{nowrap|Suprematist Composition:}} {{nowrap|White on White}}, 1918

|File:Piet Mondrian, 1942 - Broadway Boogie Woogie.jpg|Piet Mondrian, Broadway Boogie Woogie, 1942–1943

|File:Le Grand Baigneur, par Paul Cézanne, Yorck.jpg|{{nowrap|Paul Cézanne}}, {{nowrap|The Bather,}} {{nowrap|1885–1887}}

|File:Paul Gauguin - Te aa no areois - Google Art Project.jpg|{{nowrap|Paul Gauguin}}, {{nowrap|Te aa no areois}} {{nowrap|(The Seed of the Areoi)}}, 1892

|File:Boy Leading a Horse.jpg|Pablo Picasso, Boy Leading a Horse, 1905–06

|File:Chagall IandTheVillage.jpg|Marc Chagall, I and the Village, 1911

|File:Henri Matisse - View of Notre Dame. Paris, quai Saint-Michel, spring 1914.jpg|{{nowrap|Henri Matisse}}, {{nowrap|View of Notre-Dame}}, 1914

|File:De Chirico's Love Song.jpg|{{nowrap|Giorgio de Chirico}}, {{nowrap|Love Song}}, 1914

}}

It also holds works by a wide range of influential European and American artists including Auguste Rodin, Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, Joan Miró, Aristide Maillol, Piet Mondrian, Marcel Duchamp, Paul Klee, Fernand Léger, Seraphine Louis, René Magritte, Henry Moore, Alberto Giacometti, Georgia O'Keeffe, Morris Hirshfield, Edward Hopper, Walker Evans, Dorothea Lange, Arshile Gorky, Hans Hofmann, Franz Kline, Willem de Kooning, Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, David Smith, Helen Frankenthaler, Morris Louis, Kenneth Noland, Robert Rauschenberg, Frank Stella, Andy Warhol, Bill Traylor, Roy Lichtenstein, Jean-Michel Basquiat and hundreds of others.

The MoMA photography collection consists of over 25,000 works by photographers, journalists, scientists, entrepreneurs, and amateurs, and is regarded as one of the most important in the world.{{cite web | url=https://www.widewalls.ch/magazine/photography-museum-collections | title=Here are the Most Inspiring Photography Museum Collections }}

The Department of Photography was founded by Beaumont Newhall in 1940 and developed a world-renowned art photography collection under Edward Steichen (curator 1947–1961). Steichen's most notable and lasting exhibit, named The Family of Man, was seen by 9 million people. In 2003, the Family of Man photographic collection was added to UNESCO's Memory of the World Register in recognition of its historical value.{{Cite web |url=http://portal.unesco.org/ci/en/ev.php-URL_ID=23246&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html |title=Family of Man |date=May 16, 2008 |publisher=UNESCO Memory of the World Programme |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100225184358/http://portal.unesco.org/ci/en/ev.php-URL_ID%3D23246%26URL_DO%3DDO_TOPIC%26URL_SECTION%3D201.html |archive-date=February 25, 2010 |access-date=December 14, 2009}}

Steichen's hand-picked successor, John Szarkowski (curator 1962–1991), guided the department with several notable exhibitions, including 1967s New Documents that presented photographs by Diane Arbus, Lee Friedlander, and Garry Winogrand and is said to have "represented a shift in emphasis"{{cite news | url = https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2010/jul/20/john-szarkowski-photography-moma | date = July 20, 2010 | access-date = December 26, 2014 | first = Sean | last = O'Hagan | author-link = Sean O'Hagan (journalist) | newspaper = The Guardian | title = Was John Szarkowski the most influential person in 20th-century photography?}} and "identified a new direction in photography: pictures that seemed to have a casual, snapshot-like look and subject matter so apparently ordinary that it was hard to categorize".{{cite web |url = https://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/09/arts/09szarkowski.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0 | date = July 9, 2007 | access-date = December 26, 2014 | first = Philip |last = Gefter | work = The New York Times| title = John Szarkowski, Curator of Photography, Dies at 81}}{{cite news| author-last=Smith |author-first=Roberta |author-link=Roberta Smith |date=October 12, 1991 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1991/10/12/arts/peter-galassi-is-modern-s-photo-director.html |title=Peter Galassi Is Modern's Photo Director |work=The New York Times |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101119153002/http://www.nytimes.com/1991/10/12/arts/peter-galassi-is-modern-s-photo-director.html |archive-date=November 19, 2010 |access-date=September 25, 2014 |url-status=live}} Under Szarkowski, it focused on a more traditionally modernist approach to the medium, one that emphasized documentary images and orthodox darkroom techniques.

Peter Galassi (curator 1991–2011) worked under his predecessor, whereas Quentin Bajac (curator 2013–2018) was hired from the outside. The current David Dechman Senior Curator of Photography is Roxana Marcoci, PhD.

In 1932, museum founding director Alfred Barr stressed the importance of introducing "the only great art form peculiar to the 20th century" to "the American public which should appreciate good films and support them". Museum Trustee and film producer John Hay Whitney became the first chairman of the museum's Film Library from 1935 to 1951. The collection Whitney assembled with the help of film curator Iris Barry was so successful that in 1937 the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences commended the museum with an award "for its significant work in collecting films ... and for the first time making available to the public the means of studying the historical and aesthetic development of the motion picture as one of the major arts".{{cite web| title=History of MoMA Film Collection| url=http://www.moma.org/learn/resources/filmpreservation#historypreservcenter| access-date=October 13, 2012| website=MoMA| url-status=dead| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121012112259/http://www.moma.org/learn/resources/filmpreservation#historypreservcenter| archive-date=October 12, 2012}}

The first curator and founder of the film library was Iris Barry, a British film critic and author whose three decades of work in collecting films and presenting them in artistic and historical contexts gained recognition for the cinema. Barry and her successors, including Margareta Akermark, built a collection comprising some 8000 titles.{{cite book |title=The Museum of Modern Art, New York: The History and the Collection |date=1997 |publisher=Harry N. Abrams |location=New York |isbn=0-8109-8187-4 |page=527 |url=|chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/museumofmodernar00hunt/page/526/mode/2up |chapter-url-access=registration |chapter=Film and Video}}

Exiled film scholar Siegfried Kracauer worked at the MoMA film archive on a psychological history of German film between 1941 and 1943. The result of his study, From Caligari to Hitler: A Psychological History of the German Film (1947), traces the birth of Nazism from the cinema of the Weimar Republic and helped lay the foundation of modern film criticism.

Under the Museum of Modern Art Department of Film, the film collection includes more than 25,000 titles and ranks as one of the world's finest museum archives of international film art. The department owns prints of many familiar feature-length movies, including Citizen Kane and Vertigo, but its holdings also contains many less-traditional pieces, including Andy Warhol's eight-hour Empire, Fred Halsted's gay pornographic L.A. Plays Itself (screened before a capacity audience on April 23, 1974), various TV commercials, and Chris Cunningham's music video for Björk's All Is Full of Love.

The MoMA library is located in Midtown Manhattan, with offsite storage in Long Island City, Queens. The noncirculating collection documents modern and contemporary art, including painting, sculpture, prints, photography, film, performance, and architecture from 1880–present. The collection includes 300,000 books, 1,000 periodicals, and 40,000 files about artists and artistic groups. Over 11,000 artist books are in the collection.{{cite web| url=http://www.moma.org/learn/resources/library/faq_library_collection#ab| title=Library Collection FAQ| website=MoMA| url-status=live| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151104020148/http://www.moma.org/learn/resources/library/faq_library_collection#ab| archive-date=November 4, 2015}} The libraries are open by appointment to all researchers. The library's catalog is called "Dadabase". Dadabase includes records for all of the material in the library, including books, artist books, exhibition catalogs, special collections materials, and electronic resources. The MoMA's collection of artist books includes works by Ed Ruscha, Marcel Broodthaers, Susan Bee, Carl Andre, and David Horvitz.{{cite web| url=http://arcade.nyarc.org/search~S15/| title=Arcade| website=New York Art Resources Consortium| access-date=July 25, 2020}}

Additionally, the library has subscription electronic resources along with Dadabase. These include journal databases (such as JSTOR and Art Full Text), auction results indexes (ArtFact and Artnet), the ARTstor image database, and WorldCat union catalog.

{{see also|List of works in the Museum of Modern Art#Department of Architecture and Design}}

MoMA's Department of Architecture and Design was founded in 1932{{cite magazine| url=http://archrecord.construction.com/news/2011/11/MoMAs-Architecture-Dept.asp| last=Broome| first=Beth| title=A Landmark Acquisition for MoMA's Architecture and Design Department| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150907000016/http://archrecord.construction.com/news/2011/11/MoMAs-Architecture-Dept.asp| archive-date=September 7, 2015| magazine=Architectural Record| date=November 4, 2011}} as the first museum department in the world dedicated to the intersection of architecture and design.[http://www.moma.org/explore/collection/architecture_design Architecture and Design] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304004032/http://www.moma.org/explore/collection/architecture_design |date=March 4, 2016 }}, MoMA, retrieved November 30, 2011 The department's first director was Philip Johnson who served as curator between 1932 and 1934 and between 1946 and 1954."[http://www.moma.org/learn/resources/archives/EAD/PJohnsonPapersf Philip Johnson Papers in The Museum of Modern Art Archives, 1995]". {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304061900/http://www.moma.org/learn/resources/archives/EAD/PJohnsonPapersf |date=March 4, 2016 }} MoMA. The next departmental head was Arthur Drexler, who was curator from 1951 to 1956 and then served as head until 1986."[https://www.moma.org/research-and-learning/archives/finding-aids/MoMAExhFiles1980sf Exhibition Records 1980–1989 in The Museum of Modern Art Archives]", MoMA. 2016.

The collection consists of 28,000 works including architectural models, drawings, and photographs. One of the highlights of the collection is the Mies van der Rohe Archive. It also includes works from such legendary architects and designers as Frank Lloyd Wright,{{cite magazine| url=http://www.metropolismag.com/Point-of-View/January-2014/Frank-Lloyd-Wright-Exhibit-Set-to-Open-at-MoMA/| title=Frank Lloyd Wright Exhibition Set to Open at MoMA| first=Samuel| last=Medina| magazine=Metropolis| date=January 24, 2014| url-status=live| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303223811/http://www.metropolismag.com/Point-of-View/January-2014/Frank-Lloyd-Wright-Exhibit-Set-to-Open-at-MoMA/| archive-date=March 3, 2016}}{{cite magazine| url=http://www.vogue.com/872666/urban-design-frank-lloyd-wrights-archives-on-view-at-moma/| title=Urban Design: Frank Lloyd Wright's Archives on View at MoMA| magazine=Vogue| first=Robert| last=Sullivan| url-status=live| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303233131/http://www.vogue.com/872666/urban-design-frank-lloyd-wrights-archives-on-view-at-moma/| archive-date=March 3, 2016}}{{cite web| url=http://www.moma.org/visit/calendar/exhibitions/1448| title=Exhibitions: Frank Lloyd Wright and the City: Density vs. Dispersal| website=MoMA| url-status=live| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151005100347/http://www.moma.org/visit/calendar/exhibitions/1448| archive-date=October 5, 2015}}{{cite web| url=http://www.moma.org/collection/artist.php?artist_id=6459| title=Frank Lloyd Wright| website=MoMA| access-date=July 25, 2020}} Paul László, the Eameses, Betty Cooke, Isamu Noguchi, and George Nelson. The design collection contains many industrial and manufactured pieces, ranging from a self-aligning ball bearing to an entire Bell 47D1 helicopter. In 2012, the department acquired a selection of 14 video games, the basis of an intended collection of 40 that is to range from Pac-Man (1980) to Minecraft (2011).{{cite web| last=Antonelli| first=Paola| title=Video Games: 14 in the Collection, for Starters| url=http://www.moma.org/explore/inside_out/2012/11/29/video-games-14-in-the-collection-for-starters| website=MoMA| access-date=November 30, 2012| date=November 29, 2012| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121130082752/http://www.moma.org/explore/inside_out/2012/11/29/video-games-14-in-the-collection-for-starters/| archive-date=November 30, 2012| url-status=live}}

MoMA attracted 706,060 visitors in 2020, a drop of sixty-five percent from 2019, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It ranked twenty-fifth on the List of most visited art museums in the world in 2020.The Art Newspaper annual museum visitor survey, published March 31, 2021

MoMA has seen its average number of visitors rise from about 1.5-million a year to 2.5-million after its new granite and glass renovation. In 2009, the museum reported 119,000 members and 2.8-million visitors over the previous fiscal year. MoMA attracted its then highest-ever number of visitors, 3.09 million, during its 2010 fiscal year;{{cite news| last=Orden| first=Erica| date=June 29, 2010| title=MoMA Attendance Hits Record High| language=en-US| newspaper=The Wall Street Journal| url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748703964104575335301840480246| access-date=June 25, 2020| issn=0099-9660| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170710030605/https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748703964104575335301840480246| archive-date=July 10, 2017| url-status=live}} however, attendance dropped 11 percent to 2.8 million in 2011.{{cite web| first=Philip| last=Boroff| date=January 12, 2012| url=https://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-01-12/moma-attendance-falls-met-museum-rises-driven-by-blockbusters.html| title=MoMA Visitors Fall, Met Museum's Rise, Led by Blockbusters| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150111175312/http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-01-12/moma-attendance-falls-met-museum-rises-driven-by-blockbusters.html| archive-date=January 11, 2015| url-status=live| publisher=Bloomberg News| url-access=subscription}} Attendance in 2016 was 2.8 million, down from 3.1 million in 2015.{{cite news| url=http://theartnewspaper.com/news/visitor-figures-2016-christo-helps-12-million-people-to-walk-on-water| title=Visitor figures 2016: Christo helps 1.2 million people to walk on water| newspaper=The Art Newspaper| access-date=December 22, 2017| url-status=live| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171223042722/http://theartnewspaper.com/news/visitor-figures-2016-christo-helps-12-million-people-to-walk-on-water| archive-date=December 23, 2017}}

The museum was open every day since its founding in 1929, until 1975, when it closed one day a week (originally Wednesdays) to reduce operating expenses. In 2012, it again opened every day, including Tuesday, the one day it has traditionally been closed.{{cite news| last=Vogel| first=Carol| date=September 25, 2012| title=MoMA Plans to Be Open Every Day| language=en-US| work=The New York Times| url=https://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/26/arts/design/museum-of-modern-art-plans-to-be-open-every-day.html| access-date=June 25, 2020| issn=0362-4331| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161119161620/http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/26/arts/design/museum-of-modern-art-plans-to-be-open-every-day.html| archive-date=November 19, 2016| url-status=live}}

The Museum of Modern Art charges an admission fee of $30 per adult.{{cite web| title=Locations, hours, and admission| website=MoMA| url=https://www.moma.org/visit/| access-date=December 18, 2024}} Upon MoMA's reopening in 2004, its admission cost increased from $12 to $20, making it one of the most expensive museums in the city. However, it has free entry for New York State residents every Friday from 5:30pm to 8:30pm, as part of the Uniqlo Friday Nights program.{{cite web| title=UNIQLO Friday Nights| website=MoMA| url= https://www.moma.org/calendar/events/10253| access-date=February 20, 2025}} Many New York area college students also receive free admission to the museum.{{cite web| title=Discounts| website=MoMA| date=June 26, 2016| url=https://www.moma.org/visit/discounts| access-date=December 8, 2018}}

A private non-profit organization, MoMA is the seventh-largest U.S. museum by budget;{{cite web| first=Philip| last=Boroff| date=August 10, 2009| url=http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=ag20MDxuqAko| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121016225017/http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=ag20MDxuqAko| archive-date=October 16, 2012| url-status=dead| title=Museum of Modern Art's Lowry Earned $1.32 Million in 2008–2009| publisher=Bloomberg News}} its annual revenue is about $145 million. In 2011, the museum reported net assets (which does not include the value of the art) of just over $1 billion.

Unlike most museums, the museum eschews government funding, instead subsisting on a fragmented budget with a half-dozen different sources of income, none larger than a fifth.{{cite magazine| last=Cohen| first=Arianne| title=A Museum| magazine=New York| date=May 1, 2007| url=https://nymag.com/news/features/2007/profit/32904/| access-date=June 25, 2020| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305041155/http://nymag.com/news/features/2007/profit/32904/| archive-date=March 5, 2016| url-status=live}} Before the 2008 financial crisis, the MoMA's board of trustees sold its equities and had an all-cash position. An $858 million capital campaign funded the 2002–04 expansion, with David Rockefeller donating $77 million in cash. In 2005, Rockefeller pledged an additional $100 million toward the museum's endowment.{{cite news| last=Vogel| first=Carol| date=April 13, 2005| title=MoMA to Receive Its Largest Cash Gift| language=en-US| newspaper=The New York Times| url=https://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/13/arts/design/moma-to-receive-its-largest-cash-gift.html| access-date=June 25, 2020| issn=0362-4331| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130926165304/http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/13/arts/design/13gift.html| archive-date=September 26, 2013| url-status=live}} In 2012, Standard & Poor's, a nationally recognized statistical rating organization, raised its long-term rating for the museum as it benefited from the fundraising of its trustees.{{cite news| first=Katya| last=Kazakina| date=April 11, 2012| url=https://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-11/s-p-raises-museum-of-modern-art-s-debt-rating-on-management.html| title=S&P Raises Museum of Modern Art's Debt Rating on Management| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150111194307/http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-11/s-p-raises-museum-of-modern-art-s-debt-rating-on-management.html| archive-date=January 11, 2015| publisher=Bloomberg News| url-status=live}} After construction expenses for the new galleries are covered, the Modern estimates that some $65 million will go to its $650 million endowment.

MoMA spent $32 million to acquire art for the fiscal year ending in June 2012.{{cite news| last=Pogrebin| first=Robin| date=July 22, 2013| title=Qatari Riches Are Buying Art World Influence| language=en-US| newspaper=The New York Times| url=https://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/23/arts/design/qatar-uses-its-riches-to-buy-art-treasures.html| access-date=June 25, 2020| issn=0362-4331}}

MoMA employed about 815 people in 2007. The museum's tax filings from the past few years suggest a shift among the highest paid employees from curatorial staff to management.{{cite news| last=Eakin| first=Hugh| date=November 7, 2004| title=MoMA's Funding: A Very Modern Art, Indeed| language=en-US| newspaper=The New York Times| url=https://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/07/arts/design/momas-funding-a-very-modern-art-indeed.html| access-date=June 25, 2020| issn=0362-4331| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150528031127/http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/07/arts/design/07eaki.html| archive-date=May 28, 2015| url-status=live}} The museum's director Glenn D. Lowry earned $1.6 million in 2009{{cite web| first=Philip| last=Boroff| date=August 1, 2011| url=https://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-07-31/moma-raises-admission-to-25-paid-director-1-6-million-in-2009-down-14-.html| title=MoMA Raises Admission to $25, Paid Director Lowry $1.6 Million| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150111194304/http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-07-31/moma-raises-admission-to-25-paid-director-1-6-million-in-2009-down-14-.html| archive-date=January 11, 2015| publisher=Bloomberg News| url-status=live}} and lives in a rent-free $6 million apartment above the museum.{{cite news| last1=Flynn| first1=Kevin| last2=Strom| first2=Stephanie| date=August 9, 2010| title=Plum Benefit to Cultural Post: Tax-Free Housing| language=en-US| newspaper=The New York Times| url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/10/arts/design/10homes.html| access-date=June 25, 2020| issn=0362-4331| url-status=live| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170414081124/http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/10/arts/design/10homes.html?emc=eta1| archive-date=April 14, 2017}}

MoMA was forced to close in March 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic in New York City. Citing the coronavirus shutdown, MoMA fired its art educators in April 2020.{{cite news| last=McCarthy| first=Kelly| date=April 6, 2020| title=Coronavirus exposes vulnerability of NYC museums and museum workers| work=ABC News| url=https://abcnews.go.com/Business/coronavirus-exposes-vulnerability-nyc-museums-museum-workers/story?id=69957903| access-date=June 25, 2020}} In May 2020, it was reported that MoMA would reduce its annual budget from $180 to $135 million starting July 1. Exhibition and publication funding was cut by half, and staff reduced from around 960 to 800.{{cite journal| last=Kamp| first=Justin| date=May 7, 2020| title=Museum of Modern Art Slashes Budget and Staff to Weather COVID-19| url=https://www.artsy.net/news/artsy-editorial-museum-modern-art-made-drastic-cuts-order-weather-covid-19| access-date=June 25, 2020| journal=Artsy| language=en}}

Strike MoMA is a 2021 movement to strike the museum targeting what its supporters have called the "toxic philanthropy" of the museum's leadership.{{Cite news|last=Small|first=Zachary|date=May 1, 2021|title=MoMA Blocks Protesters Who Planned to Demonstrate Inside|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/30/arts/moma-blocks-protesters-who-planned-to-demonstrate-inside.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20211228/https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/30/arts/moma-blocks-protesters-who-planned-to-demonstrate-inside.html |archive-date=December 28, 2021 |url-access=limited|access-date=June 13, 2021|issn=0362-4331}}{{cbignore}}{{Cite web|date=May 3, 2021|title=Activists' Plan to Bring a March Against Toxic Philanthropy Inside MoMA Ended in Conflicting Accounts of Violence|url=https://news.artnet.com/art-world/1964126-1964126|access-date=June 13, 2021|website=Artnet News|language=en-US}}

{{expand section|coverage of art repatriation to victims beyond the Holocaust|date=June 2023}}

The MoMA has been involved in several claims initiated by families for artworks lost in the Holocaust which ended up in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art.{{Cite web|title=Do We Need to Send 'Monuments Men' to MoMA?|url=https://www.lootedart.com/news.php?r=QHCHRR986891|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160817142322/https://www.lootedart.com/news.php?r=QHCHRR986891|archive-date=August 17, 2016|access-date=January 9, 2021|website=lootedart.com |date=February 4, 2014 |first1=William B |last1=Cohan |agency=Bloomberg }}

In 2009, the heirs of German artist George Grosz filed a lawsuit seeking restitution of three works by Grosz, and the heirs of Paul von Mendelssohn-Bartholdy filed a lawsuit demanding the return of the painting by Pablo Picasso, entitled Boy Leading a Horse (1905–1906).{{Cite web|date=December 17, 2020|title=New evidence in Grosz Nazi loot case against MoMA {{!}} The Art Newspaper|url=https://www.theartnewspaper.com/archive/new-evidence-in-nazi-loot-case-against-moma|access-date=January 9, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201217093440/https://www.theartnewspaper.com/archive/new-evidence-in-nazi-loot-case-against-moma|archive-date=December 17, 2020}}{{Cite web|title=Schoeps v. Museum of Modern Art, 594 F. Supp. 2d 461 – CourtListener.com|url=https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/1902521/schoeps-v-museum-of-modern-art/|access-date=January 9, 2021|website=CourtListener|language=en-us}}{{Cite web|title=Haunting MoMA: The Forgotten Story of 'Degenerate' Dealer Alfred Flechtheim|url=https://www.lootedart.com/news.php?r=QNVN6Q521801 |agency=GaleristNY |date=February 14, 2012 |first1=Nina |last1=Burleigh |access-date=January 9, 2021|website=lootedart.com}}

Another controversy involved Pablo Picasso's painting Boy Leading a Horse (1905–06), donated to MoMA by William S. Paley in 1964. The status of the work as being sold under duress by its German Jewish owners in the 1930s was in dispute. The descendants of the original owners sued MoMA and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, which has another Picasso painting, Le Moulin de la Galette (1900), once owned by the same family, for return of the works.{{cite web| url=https://www.guggenheim.org/artwork/3411| title=Pablo Picasso, Le Moulin de la Galette (1900)| website=Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170423065430/https://www.guggenheim.org/artwork/3411| archive-date=April 23, 2017}} In 2009, both museums reached a confidential settlement with the descendants before the case went to trial and retained their respective paintings.{{cite news| first=Dave| last=Itzkoff| url=http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/18/judge-rebukes-museums-for-secret-picasso-settlement/| title=Judge Rebukes Museums for Secret Picasso Settlement| newspaper=The New York Times| date=June 19, 2009| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170709111326/https://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/18/judge-rebukes-museums-for-secret-picasso-settlement/|archive-date=July 9, 2017}}{{cite news| url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-picasso-museums/ny-museums-settle-in-claim-of-nazi-looted-picassos-idUSTRE50S0EA20090202| first=Christine| last=Kearney| title=NY museums settle in claim of Nazi-looted Picassos| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171201043528/https://www.reuters.com/article/us-picasso-museums/ny-museums-settle-in-claim-of-nazi-looted-picassos-idUSTRE50S0EA20090202| archive-date=December 1, 2017| work=Reuters| date=February 2, 2009}} Both museums had claimed from the outset to be the proper owners of these paintings, and that the claims were illegitimate. In a joint statement, the two museums wrote: "we settled simply to avoid the costs of prolonged litigation, and to ensure the public continues to have access to these important paintings."{{cite press release| url=https://www.guggenheim.org/news/guggenheim-settles-litigation-and-shares-key-findings| title=Guggenheim Settles Litigation and Shares Key Findings| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171201035916/https://www.guggenheim.org/news/guggenheim-settles-litigation-and-shares-key-findings|archive-date=December 1, 2017| publisher=Guggenheim Museum| date=March 25, 2009}}

In another case, after a decade-long court fight, in 2015 the MoMA returned a painting entitled Sand Hills by German artist Ernst Ludwig Kirchner to the Fischer family which had been left behind by Max Fischer when he fled Germany for the US in 1935.{{Cite web|last=Alexander |first=Harriet |title=New York museum returns painting stolen by Nazis after decade-long battle|url=https://www.lootedart.com/news.php?r=RJVEOL537061 |agency=Daily Telegraph |date=November 17, 2015 |access-date=January 9, 2021|website=lootedart.com}}

In February 2024 the New York Times reported that MoMa had secretly restituted Marc Chagall's Over Vitebsk to the heirs of Franz Matthiesen in 2021 and that the restitution involved a $4 million payment to the museum.{{Cite news |last=Bowley |first=Graham |date=February 12, 2024 |title=Quietly, After a $4 Million Fee, MoMA Returns a Chagall With a Nazi Taint |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/12/arts/chagall-moma-return-over-vitebsk.html |url-access=subscription |access-date=February 15, 2024 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}} The painting had passed through the Nazi dealer Kurt Feldhausser and the Wehye Gallery and its provenance was disputed.{{Cite web |last=Villa |first=Angelica |date=February 12, 2024 |title=MoMA Returned Valuable Chagall Painting with Disputed Provenance in 2021 |url=https://www.artnews.com/art-news/news/moma-returned-chagall-painting-disputed-provenance-1234696002/ |access-date=February 15, 2024 |website=ARTnews.com |language=en-US}} The museum initially stated that the acquisition was not problematic, because its provenance researcher believed that the Matthiesen transfer was a repayment for debt, and not related to Nazi persecution of the Jews.{{Cite web |title=Nazi-Era Provenance Research – Starting from Scratch {{!}} Lynn Rother |website=Stanford Humanities Center |url=https://shc.stanford.edu/stanford-humanities-center/events/nazi-era-provenance-research-starting-scratch-lynn-rother |access-date=February 15, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221127043907/https://shc.stanford.edu/stanford-humanities-center/events/nazi-era-provenance-research-starting-scratch-lynn-rother |archive-date=November 27, 2022 |url-status=dead }}{{Cite web |last=Villa |first=Angelica |date=February 12, 2024 |title=MoMA Returned Valuable Chagall Painting with Disputed Provenance in 2021 |url=https://www.artnews.com/art-news/news/moma-returned-chagall-painting-disputed-provenance-1234696002/ |access-date=November 7, 2024 |website=ARTnews.com |language=en-US |quote=A 2017 book by researcher Lynn Rother titled Art for Credit, about the role of art used as loan collateral during World War II, states that there is no evidence that the Chagall was seized under duress, and that it was negotiated willingly by Matthiesen’s gallery.}} However the museum later reversed its position.{{Cite web |date=August 27, 2024 |title=Holocaust-restitution firm Mondex settles legal feud with heir over fees for $24m Chagall painting |url=https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2024/08/27/holocaust-restitution-mondex-feud-24m-chagall |access-date=November 7, 2024 |website=The Art Newspaper - International art news and events}}

{{more citations needed|section|date=November 2017}}

Currently, the board of trustees includes 46 trustees and 15 life trustees. Even including the board's 14 "honorary" trustees, who do not have voting rights and do not play as direct a role in the museum, this amounts to an average individual contribution of more than $7 million. The Founders Wall was created in 2004, when MoMA's expansion was completed, and features the names of the actual founders in addition to those who gave significant gifts; about a half-dozen names have been added since 2004. For example, Ileana Sonnabend's name was added in 2012, even though she was only 15 when the museum was established in 1929.{{cite news| last=Cohen| first=Patricia| date=November 28, 2012| title=MoMA Gains Treasure That Met Also Coveted| language=en-US| newspaper=The New York Times| url=https://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/28/arts/design/moma-gains-treasure-that-metropolitan-museum-of-art-also-coveted.html| access-date=June 25, 2020| issn=0362-4331| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121128131551/http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/28/arts/design/moma-gains-treasure-that-metropolitan-museum-of-art-also-coveted.html| archive-date=November 28, 2012}}

{{col-begin}}

{{col-2}}

In Memoriam – David Rockefeller (1915–2017)

• Honorary chairman – Ronald S. Lauder
• Chairman emeritus – Robert B. Menschel
• President emerita – Agnes Gund
• President emeritus – Donald B. Marron Sr.
• Chairman – Jerry I. Speyer
• Co-Chairman– Leon D. Black
• President – Marie-Josée Kravis

{{col-2}}

Vice chairmen:

• Sid R. Bass
• Mimi Haas
• Marlene Hess
• Richard E. Salomon
• Director – Glenn D. Lowry
• Treasurer – Richard E. Salomon
• Assistant treasurer – James Gara
• Secretary – Patty Lipshutz

{{col-end}}

{{div col begin}}

• Wallis Annenberg
• Sid R. Bass
• Lawrence B. Benenson
• Leon D. Black
• Clarissa Alcock Bronfman
• Patricia Phelps de Cisneros
• Edith Cooper
• Paula Crown
• David Dechman
• Anne Dias-Griffin
• Glenn Dubin
• John Elkann
• Laurence D. Fink
• Kathleen Fuld
• Howard Gardner
• Victoria Mihelson{{cite web | url=https://vk.com/photo-145827737_456239161 | title=V-A-C Live: Tino Sehgal | VK }}
• Mimi Haas
• Alexandra A. Herzan
• Marlene Hess
• Jill Kraus
• Marie-Josée Kravis
• Ronald S. Lauder
• Thomas H. Lee
• Michael Lynne
• Khalil Gibran Muhammad
• Philip S. Niarchos
• James G. Niven
• Peter Norton
• Maja Oeri
• Michael S. Ovitz
• David Rockefeller Jr.
• Sharon Percy Rockefeller
• Richard E. Salomon
• Marcus Samuelsson
• Anna Marie Shapiro
• Anna Deavere Smith
• Jerry I. Speyer
• Ricardo Steinbruch
• Daniel Sundheim
• Alice M. Tisch
• Edgar Wachenheim III
• Gary Winnick

{{div col end}}

{{div col}}

Life trustees:

• Eli Broad
• Douglas S. Cramer
• Joel S. Ehrenkranz
• Gianluigi Gabetti
• Agnes Gund
• Barbara Jakobson
• Werner H. Kramarsky
• June Noble Larkin
• Donald B. Marron Sr.
• Robert B. Menschel
• Peter G. Peterson
• Emily Rauh Pulitzer
• David Rockefeller
• Jeanne C. Thayer

{{div col end}}

{{div col}}

Honorary trustees:

• Lin Arison
• Jan Cowles
• Lewis B. Cullman
• H.R.H. Duke Franz of Bavaria
• Maurice R. Greenberg
• Wynton Marsalis
• Richard E. Oldenburg
• Richard Rogers
• Ted Sann
• Gilbert Silverman
• Yoshio Taniguchi
• Eugene V. Thaw

{{div col end}}

• Alfred H. Barr Jr. (1929–1943){{Cite news |last=Glueck |first=Grace |date=August 16, 1981 |title=Alfred Hamilton Barr Jr. Is Dead; Developer of Modern Art Museum |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1981/08/16/obituaries/alfred-hamilton-barr-jr-is-dead-developer-of-modern-art-museum.html |access-date=April 7, 2023 |issn=0362-4331}}
• No director (1943–1949; the job was handled by the chairman of the museum's coordination committee and the director of the Curatorial Department){{cite news| title=Promoted to Director Of Modern Art Museum| url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F10D12F83F5F177B93CBA8178BD95F4D8485F9 |url-access=subscription | newspaper=The New York Times| date=October 19, 1949 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140719232701/http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9E07E3D9143BE23BBC4152DFB6678382659EDE| archive-date=July 19, 2014| url-status=live}}{{cite news| date=October 28, 1943| title=A.H. Barr Jr. Retires at Modern Museum; Director Since 1929 to Devote His Full Time to Writing on Art| url=https://www.nytimes.com/1943/10/28/archives/ah-barr-jr-retires-at-modern-museum-director-since-1929-to-devote.html |url-access=subscription | newspaper=The New York Times |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140722102231/http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9A05E6D8143DE13BBC4051DFB6678388659EDE| archive-date=July 22, 2014| url-status=live}}
• Rene d'Harnoncourt (1949–1968){{Cite news |date=August 14, 1968 |title=Rene d'Harnoncourt Dead at 67; Headed Museum of Modern Art |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1968/08/14/archives/rene-dharnoncourt-dead-at-67-headed-museum-of-modern-art.html |url-access=subscription |access-date=April 7, 2023 |issn=0362-4331}}
• Bates Lowry (1968–1969){{Cite news |last=Glueck |first=Grace |date=January 9, 1970 |title=Modern Names Hightower Director |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1970/01/09/archives/modern-names-hightower-director.html |access-date=April 7, 2023 |issn=0362-4331 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230412011159/https://www.nytimes.com/1970/01/09/archives/modern-names-hightower-director.html |archive-date= April 12, 2023 }}
• John Brantley Hightower (1970–1972){{Cite news |last=Glueck |first=Grace |date=January 6, 1972 |title=Hightower Quits the Modem Museum |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1972/01/06/archives/hightower-quits-the-modem-museum-hightower-quits-as-director-of.html |access-date=April 7, 2023 |issn=0362-4331 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230407145738/https://www.nytimes.com/1972/01/06/archives/hightower-quits-the-modem-museum-hightower-quits-as-director-of.html |archive-date=April 7, 2023 }}
• Richard Oldenburg (1972–1994){{Cite news |last=Kimmelman |first=Michael |date=November 17, 1994 |title=Museum of Modern Art Ends Troubled Search for a Chief |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1994/11/17/us/museum-of-modern-art-ends-troubled-search-for-a-chief.html |url-access=subscription |access-date=April 7, 2023 |issn=0362-4331}}
• Glenn D. Lowry (1995–2025{{cite web | last=Pogrebin | first=Robin | title=Glenn Lowry, Longtime MoMA Director, Will Step Down Next Year | website=The New York Times | date=September 10, 2024 | url=https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/10/arts/design/glenn-lowry-moma-director.html | access-date=September 12, 2024}})
• Christophe Cherix (2025 - {{Cite news |last=Small |first=Zachary |date=March 28, 2025 |title=MoMA's New Director Will Be Christophe Cherix |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/28/arts/design/christophe-cherix-moma-director.html#:~:text=The%20Museum%20of%20Modern%20Art's,decade%20tenure%20of%20Glenn%20Lowry. |access-date=March 28, 2025 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}})

• Philip Johnson, chief curator of architecture and design (1932–1934 and 1946–1954)
• Arthur Drexler, chief curator of architecture and design (1951–1956)
• Peter Galassi, chief curator of photography (1991–2011){{cite journal| title=The definitive Brassaï show, curated by ex-MoMA star Peter Galassi| url=https://www.bjp-online.com/2018/02/brassai-barc/| date=February 12, 2018| journal=British Journal of Photography| first=Juan| last=Peces| access-date=July 25, 2020}}
• Cornelia Butler, chief curator of drawings (2006–2013)
• Barry Bergdoll, chief curator of architecture and design (2007–2013)
• Rajendra Roy, chief curator of film (2007–present)
• Ann Temkin, chief curator of painting and sculpture (2008–present){{cite news| last=Smith| first=Jennifer| date= March 23, 2016| title=MoMA Serves Up a New '60s Mix| newspaper=The Wall Street Journal| url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/moma-serves-up-a-new-60s-mix-1458769654| access-date=June 26, 2020| url-access=subscription}}
• Klaus Biesenbach, director of MoMA PS1 and chief curator at large (2009–2018)
• Sabine Breitwieser, chief curator of media and performance art (2010–2013)
• Christophe Cherix, chief curator of prints and illustrated books (2010–2013), drawings and prints (2013–2025)
• Paola Antonelli, director of research and development and senior curator of architecture and design (2012–present)
• Quentin Bajac, chief curator of photography (2012–2018)
• Stuart Comer, chief curator of media and performance art (2014–present)
• Martino Stierli, chief curator of architecture and design (2015–present)

• List of largest art museums
• {{Annotated link |List of museums and cultural institutions in New York City}}
• {{Annotated link |List of most-visited museums in the United States}}
• {{Annotated link |Dorothy Canning Miller}}
• {{Annotated link |Sam Hunter (art historian)|Sam Hunter}}
• {{Annotated link |Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum}}
• {{Annotated link |Talk to Me (exhibition)}}
• {{Annotated link |The Family of Man}}

{{Reflist}}

{{refbegin|40em}}

• Allan, Kenneth R. "Understanding Information", in Conceptual Art: Theory, Myth, and Practice. Ed. Michael Corris. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004. pp. 144–168.
• {{cite book| url=https://archive.org/details/definingmodernar0000barr|title=Defining modern art: selected writings of Alfred H. Barr, Jr.| last1=Barr| first1=Alfred H| last2=Sandler| first2=Irving| last3=Newman| first3=Amy| date=January 1, 1986| publisher=Abrams| isbn=0810907151| location=New York|language=en| url-access=registration}}
• Bee, Harriet S. and Michelle Elligott. Art in Our Time. A Chronicle of the Museum of Modern Art, New York 2004, {{ISBN|0-87070-001-4}}.
• Fitzgerald, Michael C. Making Modernism: Picasso and the Creation of the Market for Twentieth-Century Art. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1995.
• Geiger, Stephan. The Art of Assemblage. The Museum of Modern Art, 1961. Die neue Realität der Kunst in den frühen sechziger Jahren, (Diss. University Bonn 2005), München 2008, {{ISBN|978-3-88960-098-1}}.
• Harr, John Ensor and Peter J. Johnson. The Rockefeller Century: Three Generations of America's Greatest Family. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1988.
• Kert, Bernice. Abby Aldrich Rockefeller: The Woman in the Family. New York: Random House, 1993.
• Lynes, Russell, Good Old Modern: An Intimate Portrait of the Museum of Modern Art, New York: Athenaeum, 1973.
• {{cite book |last=Paquette |first=Catha |title=At the Crossroads: Diego Rivera and his Patrons at MoMA, Rockefeller Center, and the Palace of Fine Arts |location=Austin |publisher=University of Texas Press |year=2017 |isbn=978-1477311004 }}
• Reich, Cary. The Life of Nelson A. Rockefeller: Worlds to Conquer 1908–1958. New York: Doubleday, 1996.
• {{cite book| last=Rockefeller| first=David| title=Memoirs| location=New York| publisher=Random House| year=2003| isbn=978-0812969733}}
• {{cite book| last=Schulze| first=Franz| title=Philip Johnson: Life and Work| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tAe2qWReLhAC&q=Philip+Johnson:+Life+and+Work| location=Chicago| publisher=University Of Chicago Press| date=June 15, 1996| isbn=978-0226740584}}
• {{cite book| last=Staniszewski| first=Mary Anne| title=The Power of Display. A History of Exhibition Installations at the Museum of Modern Art| publisher=MIT Press| year=1998| isbn=978-0262194020}}
• {{cite book| last=Wilson| first=Kristina| title=The Modern Eye: Stieglitz, MoMA, and the Art of the Exhibition, 1925–1934| location=New Haven| publisher=Yale University Press| year=2009| isbn=978-0300149166}}
• {{cite book| last=Lowry| first=Glenn D.| title=The Museum of Modern Art in this Century| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sjhX7q4mJHQC&q=The+Museum+of+Modern+Art+in+this+Century| year=2009| publisher=Museum of Modern Art| isbn=978-0870707643}}

{{refend}}

{{commons category}}

• {{official website|http://moma.org/}}
• [http://www.moma.org/learn/resources/archives/archives_exhibition_history_list MoMA Exhibition History List (1929–present)]
• [https://www.moma.org/audio/ MoMA Audio]
• [https://www.youtube.com/moma MoMA's YouTube Channel]
• [https://www.coursera.org/moma MoMA's free online courses on Coursera]
• [https://www.moma.org/learn/moma_learning/ MoMA Learning]
• [https://www.moma.org/magazine/ MoMA Magazine]
• {{cite journal|last1=Jeffers|first1=Wendy|title=Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Patron of the modern|journal=Magazine Antiques|date=November 2004|volume=166|issue=55|page=118|url=http://connection.ebscohost.com/c/articles/14873617/abby-aldrich-rockefeller-patron-modern|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160206014649/http://connection.ebscohost.com/c/articles/14873617/abby-aldrich-rockefeller-patron-modern|url-status=dead|archive-date=February 6, 2016|access-date=January 28, 2016|id=14873617|via=EBSCOhost|url-access=subscription}}
• [https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/05/arts/design/moma-museum-renovation.html" MoMA to Close, Then Open Doors to a More Expansive View of Art" New York Times, 2019]
• [https://artsandculture.google.com/partner/moma-the-museum-of-modern-art?hl=en Museum of Modern Art] within Google Arts & Culture

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