Rubin Museum of Art

The Rubin Museum of Himalayan Art, also known as the Rubin Museum or the Rubin Museum of Art, is dedicated to the collection, display, and preservation of the art and cultures of the Himalayas, the Indian subcontinent, Central Asia and other regions within Eurasia, with a permanent collection focused particularly on Tibetan art. The museum opened in 2004 at 150 West 17th Street between the Avenue of the Americas and Seventh Avenue in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. In early 2024 it announced the closure of its New York City building in order to become a global "museum without walls", focusing on traveling exhibitions, long-term loans. History The museum originated from a private collection of Himalayan art which Donald and Shelley Rubin had been assembling since 1974 and which they wanted to display. In 1998, the Rubins paid $22 million for the building that had been occupied by Barneys New York, a designer fashion department store that had filed for bankruptcy. The building was remodeled as a museum by preservation architects Beyer Blinder Belle. The original six-story spiral staircase was left intact to become the center of. Building The 70,000-square-foot (6,500-square-meter) museum occupied what was formerly a portion of the Barneys department store in Manhattan's Chelsea neighborhood. It was acquired in 1998 and renovated extensively from 2000 to 2004. The renovation and new design elements were the results of a collaboration headed by the architectural firm of Beyer Blinder Belle and including Atelier Imrey Culbert (associate museum designers) and Milton Glaser Incorporated. Many of the architectural details within the building were retained, most notably Andree Putman 's steel-and-marble staircase that spirals through the six-story.