VIBE

This elegant gallery housed in a Fifth Avenue mansion (the former home of society dame Mrs. Cornelius Vanderbilt III, no less) is a labor of love by art dealer Serge Sabarsky and mogul Ronald Lauder, who together spent close to three decades planning a museum to house their excellent collections of early 20th century Austrian and German art before it finally opened in 2001. The richly paneled rooms are divided by theme, with some devoted to the Vienna art scene around 1900 and others covering important German art movements like the Blaue Reiter and the Bauhaus. Highlights include works by Klimt, Kandinsky, and Kokoschka, as well as two refined cafés, Café Sabarsky and Café Fledermaus, both of which evoke the heady turn of the century Vienna coffeehouse scene.

GO HERE WITH

Art buffs; a date; friends

WHY WE LIKE IT

The premises are as lovely as the carefully curated collections. It’s hard to be a hidden gem on Museum Mile, but the Neue Galerie manages to keep at least a slightly lower profile–we love it when we strike it lucky and have the gorgeous galleries (mostly) to ourselves. The USD 135 million Adele Bloch-Bauer I is truly a wonder to behold (for both artistic and monetary reasons). And of course, on a not-so-artsy note, there’re those divine pastries in Café Sabarsky…

WHAT WE WOULD CHANGE

The massive lines to get into Café Sabarsky on weekends are ridiculous. We've waited close to an hour for a teeny table.

GOOD TO KNOW

Admission to the museum is free on the first Friday of the month from 6:00pm-8:00pm. The price of admission also includes an audio tour, and there are free docent-lead tours Saturday, Sunday, and Monday at 2:00pm. This isn’t a great place to take children–12-16 year olds must be accompanied by an adult at all times, and kids under 12 aren’t admitted (except for infants carried in a frontal sling or in a stroller (strollers only allowed on the ground floor and lower level)). The museum also hosts regular cabarets in Café Sabarsky, free films on Mondays at 4:00pm in Café Fledermaus, and music recitals on Wednesday at 7:00pm (USD 25 per person, tickets available at main desk of museum). The Neue Galerie is extremely sensitive to the fact that many German and Austrian artworks were looted during the Nazi period, and they devote a large portion of their research resources to determining the provenence of their works. On a related note, after a protracted battle with the Austrian government over post-war ownership, Maria Altmann finally gained control of the gorgeous Adele Bloch-Bauer I by Klimt, only to promptly to sell it to the Neue Galerie co-founder Lauder for a cool USD 135 million, making it one of the most valuable artworks in the country.

CLOSEST COMPS

The Morgan Library & Museum (New York); The Phillips Collection (Washington, DC)

Click here for our full-form mobile travel guide, The Purple Passport to New York City.