De Young Receives New Guinea Artifacts Worth $15 Million

SAN FRANCISCO—The De Young Museum announced today a gift of 137 New Guinea artifacts valued at $15 million from collectors Marcia and John Friede.

The couple has pledged to donate over 3,000 masterworks from the island, one of the most isolated in the world, to the new Herzog & de Meuron–designed de Young Museum, which opened in 2005. A portion of the collection is already on display in the museum’s Marcia and John Friede Gallery.

During a 40-year period, the Friedes have amassed the largest personal collection of New Guinea art in the world, which the ambassador of Papua New Guinea, Evan Paki, has called the “finest private collection of New Guinea art anywhere...outside Papua New Guinea.”

The collection, which the couple has named the Jolika Collection in honor of their children John, Lisa, and Karen, contains pieces once owned by Andre Breton and other important early collectors of New Guinea art. “San Francisco’s location at the gateway to the Pacific provides an ideal home for the collection,” Mr. Friede said.

The latest gift from the Jolika Collection includes prehistoric stone objects, sculptures, textiles, and a variety of other objects.