The Mint Museum to Present Masterpieces from New Orleans

When the floodwaters of Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans, staff at the New Orleans Museum of Art (NOMA) took refuge in their museum to protect its artwork from looters and water damage. The fruits of their efforts are reflected in the pristine collections of European and American art which will be on view at the Mint Museum of Art March 14 – June 21, 2009 as the special exhibition Masterworks from the New Orleans Museum of Art.

Particularly rich in French and American art, the permanent collection of NOMA includes paintings and sculptures by some of the world’s greatest artists. Although the museum’s collection of 40,000 artworks was largely unharmed by the hurricane, the building and adjacent sculpture garden sustained more than $6 million in damage. The fees that NOMA generates from this traveling exhibition will benefit its Katrina Recovery Fund.

Masterworks from the New Orleans Museum of Art celebrates the European and American portions of NOMA’s distinguished and diverse holdings. Nearly 90 of the museum’s most prized works from the late 17th through the mid-20th centuries will be on display for this rare opportunity, including paintings and sculptures by Paul Cezanne, Joan Miro, Claude Monet, Georgia O’Keeffe, Pablo Picasso, Jackson Pollock, Pierre Auguste Renoir, Auguste Rodin, John Singer Sargent and Giambattista Tiepolo. Of particular note are paintings, drawings, pastels and sculptures by Edgar Degas, who frequently visited New Orleans to see family, and a 10-foot-tall portrait of Marie Antoinette by Elisabeth Louise Vige Le Brun, one of the most acclaimed woman artists of the 18th century.