Curator, Romy Silver-Kohn: Bliss died in 1931, only two years after the founding of the Museum, and so she didn't really get to see it grow. But she left much of her collection to MoMA. She also realized that this gift would change the nature of the museum from a place to see temporary exhibitions to a true collecting institution. And she said that the museum could only receive the collection if they showed themselves to be on firm financial footing within three years of her death.
Curator, Ann Temkin: So she made the gift contingent upon MoMA being able to raise a million dollars. It was the beginning of the Great Depression, so we raised $600,000 and her brother, her executor, made the decision that that would do the trick.
Romy Silver-Kohn: And her will also allowed the museum to change, and sell her works in order to buy new works. So because of this gift, we were able to get some of the works of art that are most synonymous with MoMA today. It wasn't about holding on to the works that Bliss chose for the rest of time. It was about using those works to build the best museum that they could.
Ann Temkin: One of the things that's really impossible for us to recreate is how, at the time of Lillie Bliss, modern art was something that people ridiculed and found dangerous. But Bliss's support, whether by example in showing it in her apartment, in donating it to a young museum—all of that was part of bringing acceptance.