A section of Rashid Johnson's "Broken Pavilion," showing the abstract mosaic faces on the wall.

Collection

Since its founding in 1913, the Memorial Art Gallery’s collection has grown to more than 13,000 works of art. Representing cultures from around the world and across millennia, the permanent collection is renowned for its breadth and its quality.

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New to the Collection

Since the museum’s founding in 1913, the Memorial Art Gallery has added artworks to our permanent collection each year to expand the stories we can share in our galleries and Centennial Sculpture Park.

Explore our recent acquisitions
A figure carries a stack of boxes on their shoulder, walking into the middle ground. The background is an almost-empty underpass in shades of light greenish-blue.

Collection Areas

A dark wooden mask with a high forehead, downcast eyes, and small mouth. African Art Impressionist painting of a woman drinking tea outside near a lake. American Art An incense burner shaped like the Ñudzavui deity Toho Ita. Indigenous Arts of the Americas Bronze Greek helmet with a rusted green patina. Ancient Egyptian, Greek, and Roman Art Ukiyo-e woodcut print of women getting ready for a performance. Asian Art Very intricate painting of the Temptation of Saint Anthony. European Art Red stone toiletry box engraved with animals, natural and mythological. Near and Middle Eastern Art A still from Isaac Julien's Lessons of the Hours. Modern and Contemporary Art
Visitors sitting outside in the Centennial Sculpture Park.

Centennial Sculpture Park

MAG’s Centennial Sculpture Park is an artistic urban oasis for the city of Rochester that is always open and always free!

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More About the Collection

Rights and Reproductions

Permission to reproduce images from the collection for educational or other uses may be requested from the museum’s Curatorial Department.

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Collection Management Policy

The Collections Management Policy documents the basic policies that guide the development and care of the museum’s art collection, consistent with the mission of the museum and with professional museum standards.

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Deaccessions

MAG reevaluates its permanent collection on an ongoing basis to ensure its holdings maintain an appropriate level of quality and usefulness. To uphold these standards, we occasionally deaccession works of art, a procedure that permanently removes an object from the collection.

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Nazi-Era Provenance Research

The Memorial Art Gallery is working to establish a complete provenance for works in our collection and make this information readily available to the public.

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A hand holding a clean paintbrush brushes dirt out from the recesses in a teal sculpture.
An art preparator cleaning Tony Cragg’s sculpture Versus in MAG’s Centennial Sculpture Park

More to Explore

Visitors explore artwork in MAG's Docent Gallery. Exhibitions Visitors sitting outside in the Centennial Sculpture Park. Plan Your Visit A stack of books on one of the tables in MAG's library. Researching Your Own Art

Support for the online collections database has been provided by the Henry Luce Foundation, the Louis S. and Molly B. Wolk Foundation, the Davenport-Hatch Foundation, Inc. and the Friends of the University of Rochester Libraries.

Additional support has been provided by the New York State Council on the Arts.