The art of rivalry: The Jules S. Bache collection, its formation and its donation to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1919–44.

This article focuses on the formation, public presentation, and eventual donation of the European art collection assembled by American banker and philanthropist Jules S. Bache (1861–1944). Bache built his collection primarily between 1919 and 1929, relying heavily on the art dealer Joseph Duveen, and sought to establish a museum for it in New York. After the Metropolitan Museum of Art initially rejected his conditional gift offer in 1936, Bache opened his home as a public museum until World War II forced its closure, leading to a loan exhibition of the collection at the Met in 1943. Amid wartime pressures and institutional competition, notably with the National Gallery of Art, Bache negotiated terms that allowed the Met to acquire the collection in 1944, illustrating the complex interplay of personal, financial, institutional, and geopolitical factors influencing the transfer of private art collections to public museums in the United States during this period.