The Museum's Collections

The Museum's collections were initially developed, in the early decades of the twentieth century, by such outstanding curators as Stewart Culin, Herbert Spinden, and William Henry Goodyear, with the generous support of collectors and donors from Brooklyn and around the country. Continuing to build upon their pioneering work, the Brooklyn Museum has amassed one of the largest and most diverse collections in the United States. Its vast holdings range from the ancient to the contemporary and encompass virtually all the world's principal cultures, reflecting the institution's long history of acquiring non-Western art.

Breathtaking in their scope, the permanent collections include world-famous objects of ancient Egyptian art; notable ancient Middle Eastern material; important European paintings and sculpture; one of the most comprehensive collections anywhere of American paintings; representative drawings, prints, and photographs; contemporary art; decorative arts, including twenty-six period rooms; wide-ranging Asian works embracing the arts of China, Korean, Japan, and South and Southeast Asia; a remarkable concentration of Islamic art; enormous holdings of the indigenous arts of North, Central, and South America; major objects from the Pacific Islands; and one of the largest and finest collections of African art in the United States. The Museum also houses the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art as well as the Luce Center for American Art.

Paralleling the strength and scope of the permanent collections, the Museum's Libraries and Archives hold extensive research material, documenting the collections amid the broader fields of art and cultural history. The Museum's research facilities, including the world-renowned Wilbour Library of Egyptology, comprise the fifth-largest art-museum library in the nation.

Explore these collection areas by following the links on this page.

Please note that for a variety of reasons, including conservation concerns and the lending of works to other institutions, not all the objects illustrated here are on view at any one time in the Museum's galleries. Please check the Museum's Exhibitions listings for current offerings.