The museum and sculpture garden of Hirschhorn in Washington announced that the collectors of Barbara and Aaron Levin handed him fifty works by Marcel Duchamp and his contemporaries - this is the largest gift to the museum after the death of its founder, philanthropist Joseph Hirschhorn in 1981.

The Levin collection includes 35 key works by Duchamp and 15 photographs, portraits and drawings of his contemporaries, including Tristan Tzara, Diane Arbus, Irvine Penn, Man Ray, Henri Cartier-Bresson, and rare catalogs and 150 of the 1930s dedicated to the artist. The museum, in the collection of which there used to be only one later sculpture of Duchamp, is going to present all the replenishments at the exhibition in the autumn of 2019. "The museum will plunge into the context in which Duchamp worked, at the dawn of the industrial era in the twentieth century. This time was similar to what we are experiencing now - in the digital era of the 21st century. We will show how Duchamp influenced contemporary artists, "said the director of the Hirschhorn Museum, Melissa Chiu.

Among the donated works of Duchamp - the famous early red-maiden "Hanger for Hats" and "Comb", as well as L. ("Gioconda" with painted mustache), "Enameled Apollinaire", "Why not sneeze, Ros Selyavi" and later, but no less famous "Box in a suitcase", a set of miniature replicas and photos depicting Duchamp's main works, including including the famous urinal "Fountain".

Barbara and Aaron Levin had the largest private collection of Duchamp's works and decided to transfer it to the museum on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the artist's death. "We collect art for most of our life and support the Hirschhorn Museum for 20 years. Free museum, which is visited by almost 1 million people a year, will be a wonderful home for these works, "- said collectors. Their gift puts the Hirschhorn Museum on a par with museums and the largest collections of Duchamp in the US, such as the Art Museum of Philadelphia and MoMA (New York).