The Metropolitan Museum of Art is loaning 28 modern sculptures, which are currently languishing in storage facilities, to the University of Texas, Austin, the New York Times reports. The loan is renewable in five years.

According to Gary Tinterow, the Met’s curator of 19th-century, modern, and contemporary art, many of the loaned works were acquired in the first few years after the museum opened a new wing for modern art in 1987, a time when curators believed they would have more space to display modern sculpture. The sculptures were originally intended for a dedicated sculpture court, which has since become a gallery for both paintings and sculpture, and for the museum’s roof, which now shows single-artist installations rather than works from the museum's collection.

The sculptures are to be installed at the Texas university in two stages. Starting this month, 17 pieces will be arranged outdoors and in buildings throughout the campus. The remaining 11 works will be go in the school's Bass Concert Hall in January after its renovation is completed.

The Met has also announced longterm loans of other works in storage. Fifteen pieces of armor have gone to the Minneapolis Institute of Arts and 212 mostly classical casts to the Michael C. Carlos Museum at Emory University in Atlanta.