Art Properties Collection

The Art Properties collection comprises more than 13,000 works of art and cultural heritage objects in all media from all time periods and international locations. The collection has been built up over two centuries primarily through gifts and bequests. The mission of the University's art collection is to support educational programs, curricular integration, and research and study.

3_C00_837_view2 Anna Hyatt Huntington (1876-1973), Cranes Rising, 1934, bronze, Gift of the artist (C00.0837), Photo: Mark Ostrander
2_C00_1483_302 Maker unknown, Inupiat people of Northwest Alaska, Wolf Dance: The Transformation of the Eagles into Wolves, 1890s, pencil, brown and red ink, and wash on paper, The Bush Collection of Religion and Culture (C00.1483.302)
6_C00_1580_92 Martin M. Lawrence (1808-1859), Portrait of James Watson Webb (1802-1884), 1850-51, mammoth-plate daguerreotype, Chandler Chemical Museum Collection (C00.1580.92)
5_S3814 Maker unknown, China, Altarpiece with Pensive Figure of a Bodhisattva, 556, Northern Qi dynasty (550-577), marble with traces of limestone, Arthur M. Sackler Collections (S3814)

Image Credits:

All works in Art Properties, Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library, Columbia University in the City of New York

Highlights include:

  • over 2,500 oil paintings, including hundreds of portraits of Columbia administrators and faculty since the eighteenth century, and the largest repository of art work by American artists Florine Stettheimer (1871-1944) and Ary Stillman (1891-1967);
  • public outdoor sculpture with works by Daniel Chester French, Henry Moore, Clement Meadmore, Auguste Rodin, and others;
  • over 2,000 works of photography from daguerreotypes to digital prints, including significant holdings of nineteenth-century American photography, and works by photographers such as Tina Barney, Mike Disfarmer, Donna Ferrato, Larry Fink, Ralph Gibson, Leon Levinstein, Helen Levitt, Aubrey Mayer, Arthur Rothstein, Andy Warhol, and Garry Winogrand;
  • thousands of works on paper (drawings, watercolors, prints);
  • nearly 500 works of art and cultural heritage objects made by American Indian and Native Alaskan tribal communities;
  • archaeological collections including pottery, bronzes, and other items from ancient Rome, Etruria, and the Aegean, excavated and brought to the University by alumni-professors George N. Olcott (1869-1912) and Clarence H. Young (1866-1957);
  • the Arthur M. Sackler Collection donated between the years 1964 and 1972 of over 2,500 ancient Near Eastern and East Asian art works and cultural heritage objects, including Buddhist sculptures in stone, bronze, and polychrome wood, and decorative arts and archaeological artifacts from India, China, Japan, and Korea; and
  • hundreds of sculptures and decorative arts (ceramics, tapestries, furniture) from around the globe.

To learn more about the University's art collection, please see these articles and blog posts:

Collection Resources

COLLECTION SPOTLIGHTS & EXHIBITIONS