How Bank of America is helping restore Picasso, Rembrandt masterpieces + other art
Bank of America announced this year’s recipients of its Art Conservation Project grants, which include funding for the ambitious restoration of Rembrandt’s iconic “The Night Watch,” at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam and “The Old Guitarist” masterpiece by Pablo Picasso at the Art Institute of Chicago.
The Charlotte bank is providing support to 18 nonprofit cultural institutions across 10 countries to safeguard a range of historically and culturally significant works.
“While other banks may support exhibitions and have art collections, we’re the only corporation that has really had this focus on conserving, protecting, helping to ensure that future generations have access to some of these great works of art,” Brian Siegel, global arts, culture and heritage executive at Bank of America, told The Charlotte Observer.
The projects cover diverse artistic traditions and conservation needs, ranging from fragile works on paper to grand paintings and objects requiring advanced preservation techniques. The announcement was unveiled Thursday at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City.
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Bank of America and art preservation
The restoration of works like “The Night Watch” reinforces Bank of America’s commitment to public access, with all conserved artworks to return to public display, according to the bank.
The bank’s Art Conservation Project has spent more than $20 million supporting more than 15,000 conservation projects in 40 countries since it began in 2010.
The project protects works vulnerable to time and environmental stress of historically or culturally significant works of art, including works that have been designated as national treasures.
Bank of America’s conservation project has included sculptures at the Vatican in Italy to works damaged by hurricanes in Puerto Rico and fire at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. “It’s about what the museum is trying to do and what the story, they’re going to be able to tell once the artwork has been restored,” Siegel said. The variety of techniques involved in this year’s projects is remarkable, Siegel said, with some requiring meticulous surface cleaning and others utilizing advanced imaging tools that “didn’t exist even a decade ago.”
The goal, he said, is simple: “to ensure these works remain visible, accessible and enjoyed by visitors for years to come.”
Other works receiving Conservation Art Project grants
From 180 applicants, 18 projects were chosen this year.
“The Night Watch,” from 1642 is widely considered Rembrandt’s most iconic work. It’s also his largest, at 12 feet, 5 inches by 14 feet, 10.5 inches. The painting shows Amsterdam’s civic guard, the city militia and police. His use of dramatic lighting and the poses of the people in the painting have captured audiences’ attention for nearly four centuries.
Meanwhile, Picasso painted his cubist “The Old Guitarist” in late 1903 and early 1904, representing the quintessential painting of his Blue Period.
In addition to those pieces, other internationally renowned artworks and historical items chosen are:
- “La Négresse” by Henri Matisse at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.
- “With Liberty and Justice for All (A Work in Progress)” by Jim Hodges at The Contemporary Austin
- “The Meeting of Dante and Virgil” by Francesco Salviati at the Minneapolis Institute of Art
- “The Four Accomplishments and Immortal” by Kano Sōgen Shigenobu at the Seattle Art Museum
- Four 17th-century tapestries by Raphael de la Planche at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston
- Thirteen lobby murals at the Apollo Theater in Harlem
- “Bacchus and Ariadne” by Titian at the National Gallery in London
- “Gaki Zōshi (Scroll of Hungry Ghosts)” at the Tokyo National Museum
- “The Palms of the Arc de Triomphe” at the Centre des Monuments Nationaux in Paris
- “The Judgment of Paris” by Jacob de Backer at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya (CSMVS) in Mumbai
- “Transfiguration” by Camillo Procaccini at Duomo di Milano in Milan
- “Juggler” by Alice Rahon at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts
- “Baltazar de Borba Gato delivering the first shipment of gold from Brazil to the King of Portugal” and “José Bonifácio” by Aldo Locatelli at Museu Paulista da Universidade de Sao Paulo in Brazil
- “Shadow Over the Land” by Benny Andrews at the San José Museum of Art
- More than 3,100 artworks at La Casa del Libro Museum in San Juan, Puerto Rico
- 52 paintings by Francisco Laso de los Ríos at Museo de Arte de Lima in Peru
Last year, Bank of America Art Conservation Project funded 16 conservation projects around the world.
Bank of America supporting the arts
Bank of America also supports the arts through sponsorships, such as the “Caravaggio | Revolution: Baroque Masterpieces from the Roberto Longhi Foundation” exhibit opening Sunday at Mint Museum Uptown.
It also lends and donates works from its own collection of over 20,000 works of art, for example 1,000 photograph collection to the Mint, and its Museums on Us program, providing free admission the first weekend of the month for bank customers.
In February, the bank announced it was adding art consulting services for wealthy clients to support collectors, expanding its Private Bank arts services.
Bank of America is the second-largest bank in the U.S., and has 213,000 employees with more than 19,000 workers in the Charlotte region.
This story was originally published April 24, 2026 at 5:10 AM with the headline "How Bank of America is helping restore Picasso, Rembrandt masterpieces + other art."
