NEW YORK— The Brooklyn Museum announced today that it will share its 23,500-piece costume collection with the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute, effective January 2009. The Brooklyn collection, which includes "perhaps the world's foremost holdings of American fashion from the late 19th to the mid-20th century," will be fully integrated into the Met's holdings, resulting in the largest and most comprehensive costume collection worldwide.

In advance of the move, the Brooklyn Museum has spent the past three years assessing and documenting its collection, supported by a $3,925,000 grant by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Photographs of portions of the collection will be placed online on ARTstor, the Mellon Foundation project that provides access to art images for scholarly and non-profit educational use.

In addition, 4,000 costumes from the Brooklyn Museum have been selected for special presentation on a section of the Met's Web site, and an exhibition of the Brooklyn holdings is planned for 2010 at the Met and will be the focus of the Costume Institute's annual gala that year.

The Brooklyn Museum will retain all of its renowned non-Western costumes, as well as all non-fashion textiles.