On Loan: How The Met's Artworks Travel Around the World
Nina Maruca
3 min. read
Berlinghiero (Italian, active by 1228–died by 1236). Madonna and Child, 13th century. Tempera on wood, gold ground; Overall 31 5/8 x 21 1/8 in. (80.3 x 53.7 cm); painted surface 30 x 19 1/2 in. (76.2 x 49.5 cm). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Gift of Irma N. Straus, 1960 (60.173)
It's no mystery that The Met collection travels all around the world. But how does it get to where it's going?
Last month, the Museum received a letter from a student in California tasked with an exciting school assignment: create a simulated art exhibit at his school's fictional art museum. He was interested in borrowing Berlinghiero's Madonna and Child, an exceptionally beautiful and important painting from Italy. Addressed to Jacob Wrey Mould, who collaborated on the design of The Met's original facade in the late 1800s, the student's letter asked great questions about how museums loan art. Though Mr. Mould is no longer around to answer (he passed away over 130 years ago, in 1886), I sent the student this informative response:
