Rubin II

The Rubin Museum of Art is an American museum dedicated to the collection, display, and preservation of the art of the Himalayas and surrounding regions, especially Tibetan art. It is located at 150 West 17th Street between the Avenue of the Americas (Sixth Avenue) and Seventh Avenue in the Chelsea neighborhood of the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York.

The museum originated from a private collection of Himalayan art which Donald Rubin, the founder of MultiPlan Inc., and his wife Shelley had been assembling since 1974. In 1998, the Rubins purchased, for US$22 million, the building that had been occupied by Barneys New York, a department store for designer fashion which 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 the 25,000 square feet (2,300 square metres) of exhibition space.

The museum opened in October 2004, and displays more than 1,000 objects including paintings, sculpture, textiles, as well as ritual objects from the 2nd to the 20th centuries. The new facade on 17th Street and the five floors of galleries were influenced by Tibetan art, and were conceived by the New York-based museum architects, Celia Imrey and Tim Culbert. The graphic identity was conceived by graphic designer Milton Glaser.