Highlights of the Permanent Collection January 17, 2010

The New Orleans Museum of Art, the city's oldest fine arts institution, has a magnificent permanent collection of more than 40,000 objects. The collection, noted for its extraordinary strengths in French and American art, photography, glass, African and Japanese works, continues to grow. Reflecting its rich historic and cultural heritage in New Orleans, NOMA has formed a comprehensive survey of French art. Among its treasures are works by Edgar Degas, Picasso, Braque, Dufy and Miro, among others. NOMA has developed a unique Arts of the Americas collection, surveying the cultural heritage of North, Central and South America from the pre-Columbian period through the Spanish Colonial era. This collection is especially rich in objects from the great Mayan culture of Mexico and Central America, and in painting and sculpture from Cuzco, the fabulous Spanish capital of Peru. An important part of the Museum's display of American art is a suite of period rooms featuring 18th and 19th century furniture and decorative arts.