Rubin Museum of Art seen from 17th Street

The Rubin Museum of Art (RMA) is a museum in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States of America dedicated to the collection, display, and preservation of the art of the Himalayas and surrounding regions.

The Rubin Museum originated from a private collection of Himalayan art, which Donald Rubin, the founder of the managed-health-care network MultiPlan, Inc., and his wife Shelley had been compiling since 1974. In 1998, Donald Rubin purchased the building of the former Barneys emporium in Chelsea, a former department store for designer fashion, which had filed for bankruptcy at the time, for 22 million us dollars. When the building was remodelled as a museum, the original 6-story spiral staircase was left intact to become the center of the 25,000 square feet of exhibition space. The museum was opened in October 2004 and has been displaying a total of more than 1,000 objects including paintings, sculpture, textiles, as well as ritual objects from the 2nd to the 20th century.