Qatar Museums announced today a collaboration with New York City’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, encompassing the exchange of exhibitions, programs, and scholarly cooperation. On the occasion of the reopening of a thoroughly reinstalled and reimagined Museum of Islamic Art, and in celebration of the tenth anniversary of the opening of The Met’s Galleries for the Art of the Arab Lands, Turkey, Iran, Central Asia and Later South Asia, Qatar Museums has provided a generous gift to The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

In recognition of Qatar’s support, a gallery at The Met presenting art from the Umayyad and Abbasid Periods (7th–13th centuries) has been named the Qatar Gallery.

As part of the collaboration between the institutions, Qatar Museums has lent works from its renowned collections to The Met for exhibitions including Jerusalem in the Middle Ages (2016), Sultans of Deccan India, 1500-1700: Opulence and Fantasy (2015), The Great Age of the Seljuks (2016) and Monumental Journey: The Daguerreotypes of Girault de Prangey (2019).

Similarly, works from The Met’s collection will go on view in Doha on October 26 in the inaugural special exhibition at the renovated Museum of Islamic Art. The exhibition, Baghdad: Eye’s Delight, focuses on the art of the Abbasid period—one of the two classical periods featured in the Qatar Gallery at The Met.

Her Excellency Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, Chairperson of Qatar Museums, said, “The establishment of the Qatar Gallery at The Metropolitan Museum of Art highlights the collegiality between our institutions and our desire to advance a crucial goal we hold in common, to heighten appreciation everywhere for the art of the Islamic world. We are proud to come together with The Met to honor the beauty, depth, and variety of a global tradition that spans fourteen centuries.”

Max Hollein, Marina Kellen French Director of The Met, commented: “The Met is deeply grateful to Qatar Museums for this extraordinary act of generosity. This gift is the latest instance of the longstanding relationship between our institutions and marks the start of a broad collaboration encompassing the exchange of exhibitions, programs, and scholarly cooperation. This critical support is especially meaningful as we mark the 10th anniversary of the opening of The Met’s renovated galleries, which continue to be a source of great interest and inspiration for our millions of yearly visitors.”

The commitment between the cultural institutions furthers Qatar Museums’ efforts to fulfil its mission of sharing art and culture from Qatar and the MENASA region with the world. The collaboration also serves as a legacy project of Qatar Museums’ 2021 Year of Culture programme, which celebrated the strong ties between Qatar and the United States through a year-long cultural exchange that deepened the understanding between the nations and their people.

Source and cover image credit: Press Release

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Tracy Quirino

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