Acquisitions of the month: September 2017

A round-up of the best works of art to enter public collections recently

Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, VA
Anderson glass collection

Collectors Lisa and Dudley Anderson have made a promised gift of 97 works of art to the Chrysler Museum of Art. The collection is dominated by the work of Stanislav Libenský and Jaroslava Brychtová (47 pieces by the couple are included in the gift) but also features pieces by other Czech glassmakers including Marion Karel, Pavel Tomecko and Václav Machač. A ceramic sculpture by Robert Arneson and a select group of works on paper by various international artists are also included. It is the single largest gift of works the museum has received since Walter Chrysler’s in 1971.

Victory Column (1997), Stanislav Libenský and Jaroslava Brychtová. Gift of Lisa Shaffer Anderson and Dudley Buist Anderson

Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Egyptian gilded coffin

This incredibly rare coffin dating to the late Ptolemaic period was inscribed for the high-ranking priest Nedjemankh ­– a member of the cult of the ram-headed god Heryshef. The coffin is ornately decorated with scenes intended to protect the deceased in the afterlife. It also features a striking and possibly unique detail; thin sheets of silver foil on the interior of the lid, which were intended to protect the priest’s face. It is currently on display in the Lila Acheson Wallace Galleries for Egyptian Art.

Gilded coffin lid for the priest Nedjemankh (detail; late Ptolemaic Period, 150–50 BC). © The Metropolitan Museum of Art

LUMA Foundation and Tate
More than 12,000 photobooks from the collection of Martin Parr

Martin Parr’s world-renowned collection of photobooks has been a quarter of a century in the making and covers an impressive range of subjects and types of photographic practice. Tate and the LUMA Foundation will work in partnership to show the books publicly, to catalogue them, and to make them available online. The collection was partly gifted by the photographer and partly purchased using LUMA Foundation and Tate funds, with support from the Art Fund.