News Cosmetics billionaire Ronald Lauder's private museum has a vast collection of Austrian and German art. May 14, 2026 — 2 min read Ronald S. Lauder and Met Museum CEO and Director Max Hollein (photo Thomas Loof, all images courtesy The Metropolitan Museum of Art) In a surprise move, cosmetics billionaire Ronald Lauder's Neue Galerie will merge with the Metropolitan Museum of Art down the street on Manhattan's Fifth Avenue. The rare merger will come into effect in 2028, The Met announced in a statement today, May 14. Neue Galerie holds a collection of late 19th- and early 20th-century artworks from Austria and Germany, including its star attraction: Gustav Klimt's gold-leafed "Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I" (1907). It's also known for its collection of masterpieces by Egon Schiele, Oskar Kokoschka, Max Beckmann, Gabriele Münter, Josef Hoffmann, and others. Lauder and dealer Serge Sabarsky, a collector of Austrian and German art, co-founded the museum together in November 2001.…