6. Some of The MoMA’s most beloved works were purchased by selling pieces in Lillie P. Bliss’s collection
When The MoMA’s co-founder Lillie P. Bliss died in 1931, just two years after the museum was established, she left behind a collection of more than 150 paintings, prints, and drawings by Impressionist painters like Degas, Renoir, Cézanne, and Seurat. But the truly remarkable thing was that Bliss specified that her works could be sold in order to acquire new works for The MoMA’s collection.
It’s thanks to Bliss’s generous gift that some of the most famous works in The MoMA’s collection were acquired, including Picasso’s Les Demoiselles d’Avignon, which was purchased with funds from the sale of a Degas. Van Gogh’s Starry Night was also acquired by selling some works from her collection. Today, these are among the most popular paintings at the museum.
