The Frick Finally Reopens to the Public after Five-Year Makeover

This was once someone’s home?

That’s what I think every time I walk past one of our NYC institutions housed in a one-time privately owned mansion on the Upper East Side.

If, like me, you’re a fan of HBO’s “The Gilded Age,” the reopening of The Frick Collection after a five-year, $220 renovation reminds us of the beauty and pageantry that is the history of New York and why it must be remembered and honored.

“To paraphrase a famous Italian writer and a famous Italian book, ‘Everything has to change for everything to remain the same,’ ” was said of the revitalization by Xavier F. Salomon, the Frick’s deputy director and Peter Jay Sharp Chief Curator. (The writer to whom he refers is Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa and his book is “The Leopard.”)

Straus Media was invited to attend a special preview of the new Frick ahead of its public opening.

The project marks the institution’s most comprehensive restoration and upgrade (including the façade and gardens with Linda B. Miller serving as garden consultant) since its original public opening 90 years ago, 1935.

Your visit will be an opportunity to explore the Frick’s historic first-floor galleries—which feature art from the Renaissance to the late 19th century—and a new suite of galleries on the second floor (the original Frick family home), welcoming the public to experience these spaces for the first time. There is also a museum shop and café; new program and public spaces; the Frick Art Research Library—one of the greatest art-research libraries in the world; the Frick’s first dedicated education rooms, and a new 218-seat, acoustically tuned auditorium. It’s from there that the museum’s leadership addressed the exciting new changes.

“Our goal and priority have always been to preserve and revitalize the experience that makes the Frick so unique,” said Ian Wardropper, Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen director of The Frick Collection from 2011 to early 2025. The completion of the renovation marked the culmination of his tenure. He said that the current undertaking “ensures the Frick’s ongoing vibrancy for decades to come,” and spoke of how fortunate the museum has been to choose from some of the finest private collections in the world. These collections are now integrated with the permanent collection.

He seemed most excited about being able to welcome visitors to walk the grand staircase. (I walked down, envisioning myself as a 19th-century socialite going to greet my guests, Mrs. Astor and Mrs. Vanderbilt.)

Wardropper then introduced his successor, Axel Rüger, who added, “[The Frick] is the world’s favorite museum...the place of wonder of joy, inspiration, imagination, and perhaps solace with an incredible collection.” 


Annabelle Selldorf, principal at Selldorf Architects, who served as the Architecture and Design Team, with executive architect Beyer Blinder Belle, for the renovation and enhancement, spoke specifically about user experience. “This project was made by people for people.

“Bringing people to art is really what this is all about, all the while celebrating the marvelous building.” She then talked about creating the best paths of circulation “...for visitors to be made much more comfortable.” 


Salomon wrapped up the presentation by citing “new fabrics and new displays in certain rooms, which have returned to a look much closer to what it was like when the Fricks lived in the house. The second-floor galleries are much more intimate and of a different scale than the ones on the ground floor. Two rooms in particular have been re-created exactly as they were.”

He also acknowledged Ukrainian artist Vladimir Kanevsky, who created a number of sculptures, floral arrangements in porcelain to punctuate the galleries in key places. Each piece is designed for that specific location.

“I would just like to point out two things in general,” Solomon ended with. “One is a festival of music, which will inaugurate this auditorium later this month, and our first exhibition that opens in June.”

The exciting series of performances that will inaugurate the new Stephen A. Schwarzman Auditorium include the world premiere of a commission by Nico Muhly performed by the Jupiter Ensemble and Anthony Roth Costanzo, as well as New York premieres of piano works by Tyshawn Sorey and Vijay Iyer. April 26 through May 11, 2025.

In the first exhibition to be held in The Frick Collection’s new special exhibition galleries, three works by Johannes Vermeer will be presented together in a single gallery for the first time. The unprecedented installation—Vermeer’s “Love Letters” centers on the Frick’s iconic “Mistress and Maid,” uniting it with two special loans: “The Love Letter” from the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, and “Woman Writing a Letter, with Her Maid” from the National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin. June 18 through September 8, 2025.

Lorraine Duffy Merkl is the author of three novels, most recently “The Last Single Woman in New York City.”