The Metropolitan Museum of Art has received a promised gift of more than 6,500 photographic works from German American collector Artur Walther and the Walther Family Foundation, which operates photography-focused exhibition spaces in New York and Germany under the collector’s direction.
The donation, announced this week, spans 19th-century vernacular photography—meaning made by a non-professional or amateur—to contemporary photography and video, and represents artists from Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Americas.
Described by the Met as one of the most significant gifts in its history, the collection includes images by Malick Sidibé, Zanele Muholi, Ai Weiwei, Thomas Struth, Bernd and Hilla Becher, among others. The collection is particularly strong in four areas: African studio photography, German post-war photography, Chinese conceptual art, and vernacular images dating back to the 1840s.
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Walther, who began collecting in the 1990s after working in finance and formerly served as a trustee of the International Center of Photography in New York until 2013, said in a statement issued Thursday (May 15) that he aimed to challenge convention by acquiring works from different continents and time periods: “The Met’s commitment to modern and contemporary art and to the arts of Africa and Asia ensures that this work will be accessible to a broad, global audience.”
A selection of works from the gift will be unveiled later this month, when the museum’s Michael C. Rockefeller Wing reopens after its renovation. Pieces from the Walther collection will also be shown in the planned Oscar L. Tang and H.M. Agnes Hsu-Tang Wing, a $550 million modern and contemporary art space scheduled to open in 2030.
Max Hollein, the Met’s director and CEO, called the gift “trailblazing,” adding that Walther’s vision being international makes the donation a major asset. “The collection dramatically enhances our ability to tell a truly global history of photography,” he said.
Walther’s foundation has previously mounted exhibitions at its campus in Neu-Ulm, Germany, and operated a New York space in Chelsea from 2011 to 2021.