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Pearlman’s Wisdom

Henry and Rose Pearlman’s grandson has developed an innovative plan to exit their collection from Princeton and divvy up the works across the country on a rotating basis. It may provide an economic and community-engagement model for foundations to follow.

Henry Pearlman
Henry Pearlman was a successful mid-20th century entrepreneur who built a marine refrigeration business in Brooklyn, then a major shipping entrepôt. Early on, he began collecting Old Master and American realist paintings, until 1945, when he bought his first work by Chaïm Soutine. Photo: Courtesy of The Henry and Rose Pearlman Foundation
Marion Maneker
August 8, 2025

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On Monday, news emerged that the Henry and Rose Pearlman Foundation was making an innovative gift of the majority of its 73 works of art to three prestigious museums: the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Brooklyn Museum. The recipients have formed a partnership where works by some of the most famous 19th and early 20th century artists—Vincent van Gogh, Paul Cézanne, Amedeo Modigliani, Paul Gauguin, Edgar Degas, and Chaïm Soutine, among others—will be parceled out to each of the museums. But the arrangement also comes with a unique twist: There is a mutual understanding that if any of the works are to be put into storage, they will immediately become available to one of the other partner museums first, and then to a wider group of institutions that might borrow them for special shows.