M+ Museum and the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) have signed a historic memorandum of understanding (MOU) to foster their first comprehensive cooperation in areas such as research and art collection sharing.

The announcement follows an exclusive report by The Standard on Wednesday about "M+ plus MoMA," revealing that the West Kowloon Cultural District will enter into agreements with the renowned US museum.

The MOU was signed by M+ Museum Director Suhanya Raffel and Glenn David Lowry, the David Rockefeller Director of MoMA, during a ceremony at MoMA in New York on February 18 (Eastern Time).

M+ Museum said that this agreement marks the beginning of a fruitful partnership focused on international collaboration, cultural exchange, and museum development.

The MOU covers six key areas: joint curatorial research and exchange; conservation and collection management; artwork loans; sharing sustainability practices; training and professional development; and exhibition and program exchange.

Suhanya Raffel expressed excitement about the partnership, underscoring M+’s commitment to open dialogue and the anticipation of future joint efforts with MoMA.

“The signing of this MOU affirms M+’s commitment to collaboration with pre-eminent cultural institutions around the world and strengthens M+’s position as Asia’s global museum of contemporary visual culture,” she said.

Glenn David Lowry said: “We are thrilled to partner with M+ on an ambitious new collaboration, to exchange expertise and ideas that will help us take our museums forward in new and exciting directions and create more opportunities for our global audiences to experience and engage with contemporary art and artists.”

Located in Hong Kong’s West Kowloon Cultural District, M+ is Asia’s global museum of contemporary visual culture, featuring a multidisciplinary collection, including the extensive M+ Sigg Collection of Chinese contemporary art.

While, MoMA, situated in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, is a leading museum of modern and contemporary art, housing around 200,000 works spanning 150 years.

Historic partnership: M+ Museum and MoMA sign landmark cooperation agreement