The group, American Friends of Mudam, launched in New York on 30 May.

According to a Mudam press release issued on 29 May:

“The American Friends of Mudam is a legally registered, independent charity whose mission is to acquire and encourage gifts of works of contemporary art, and to raise funds to grant to Mudam for its exhibition and educational programs.”

“The association was born from the desire of the collector Raymond Learsy to donate works to Mudam,” Suzanne Cotter, director of Mudam, said in an interview on 5 June.

“The association is an independent entity of the museum, which is headquartered in New York. While contributing to the standing of Mudam internationally, and especially in the United States, it allows [us] to receive donations, whether financial or works. "

Given the group’s not-for-profit status, Americans who donate will benefit from tax deductions. Cotter stated in the interview:

“This is an incentive that will allow us, hopefully, to have access to new works that will enrich the recently established collection of Mudam. We must not be under any illusions: if we want to broaden the collection of the museum, we have an acquisition budget that is too modest to allow us to buy works except for those that are very recent. Recently, I researched a piece from the 1990s, but in just two years it had already tripled.”

Learsy moved from Luxembourg to the US during the second world war, at the age of 5, and went on to become a successful commodities trader and investor. Today he serves on the board of trustees of the Whitney Museum of American Art, one of the country’s most prestigious cultural institutions.

Mudam received €7.3m from the Luxembourg state for its 2019 budget.

Reported by Céline Coubray; edited by Aaron Grunwald