Chrysler Museum of Art

The Chrysler Museum of Art is an art museum on the border between downtown and the Ghent district of Norfolk, Virginia. The museum was founded in 1933 as the Norfolk Museum of Arts and Sciences. In 1971, automotive heir Walter P. Chrysler Jr. (whose wife, Jean Outland Chrysler, was a native of Norfolk) donated most of his extensive collection to the museum. This single gift significantly expanded the museum's collection, making it one of the major art museums in the Southeastern United States. The museum has a collection of more than 35,000 objects, including one the largest glass collections in America. Its holdings range from media including paintings, sculpture, photography. History The Chrysler Museum of Art opened in 1933 as the Norfolk Museum of Arts and Sciences. It was later renamed in honor of Walter P. Chrysler Jr. The museum's main building underwent expansion and renovation and reopened on May 10, 2014. During the renovation, the Glass Studio and the Moses Myers House remained open and art was displayed at venues throughout the community. The museum's grand reopening included the Rubber Duck floating sculpture from May 17–26, 2014. The museum originally had a courtyard, but during renovations in the 1980s, the courtyard was enclosed thus. Collection John Russell for the New York Times described the Chrysler collection as "one any museum in the world would kill for." Comprising over 35,000 objects, the collection spans over 5,000 years of world history. American and European paintings and sculpture from the Middle Ages to the present day form the core of the collection. The museum's most significant holdings include works by Renaissance artists: Tintoretto , Veronese , Peter Paul Rubens , Gauthier de Campes , Baroque artists Diego Velázquez , Salvator Rosa , Gianlorenzo Bernini , American artists such as John Singleton Copley.