Treasures of the Brooklyn Museum [Hardcover]

Located in the heart of King’s County, the Brooklyn Museum is an anchor of New York City and a world class institution. The museum’s 560,000-square foot building is a Beaux Arts masterpiece, housing over one-and-a-half million works of art, from ancient Assyrian reliefs to striking period homes and Old Master paintings, as well as works by the top contemporary artists of today. This handsome little book illustrates a curated selection of these pieces, including highlights of the museum’s renowned ancient Egyptian collection, its expansive holdings in American art, and its unrivaled selection of contemporary feminist art, including Judy Chicago’sDinner Party. The perfect souvenir from the museum’s shop, or for any visitor to the borough, this Tiny Folio features spectacular photography throughout, as well as a special selection of images highlighting Brooklyn’s rich artistic history.

American Art • Arts of Africa • Arts of the Americas • Arts of the Islamic World • Arts of the Pacific Islands • Asian Art • Contemporary • Decorative • Egyptian, Classical, and Ancient Near Eastern • Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist • European • Photography

Excerpt from Introduction

The Brooklyn Museum is defined by its world–class collections, with works ranging in date from ancient civilizations to the present, and covering cultures from around the world. Over the course of the twentieth and twenty–first centuries, the Brooklyn Museum has built up rich holdings in many fields, and it is now one of the world’s great treasure houses. But it wasn’t always that way.

The Brooklyn Museum started its life nearly two hundred years ago, as a library, and its first collection was books. In 1823, notices placed in local newspapers encouraged the citizens of the village of Brooklyn to attend a meeting at Stephenson’s Taverlæ