Walking up the grand steps of the Frick Collection’s Fifth Avenue mansion on a warm spring day, there is a palpable sense of anticipation.

After five years and $220 million of meticulous renovation, The Frick Collection reopened its doors on April 17, 2025, not as a reinvented museum, but as a more open, illuminated version of itself.

From the moment you enter, you’re not just a museum visitor, you are a guest in Henry Clay Frick’s home where photography is not allowed…unknowingly, I grapped a few shots before I was given a verbal spanky.

Unlike most major museums that lead you through vast corridors and white-walled galleries, the Frick offers something more intimate and atmospheric.

Sunlight streams through restored leaded windows, glinting off antique mirrors and polished parquet floors. The air is hushed, but not sterile.

As you move from room to room, you are surrounded by masterpieces that span six centuries. A Vermeer quietly glows in a corner. A Rembrandt self-portrait watches from above a fireplace.

You pass through the newly reopened second floor, previously closed to the public for generations. Discover ten exquisite galleries that now display decorative arts, miniatures, and bronzes.

Behind this seamless experience lies an architectural feat. The renovation, led by Selldorf Architects and Beyer Blinder Belle, focused on preserving the mansion’s historical character while modernizing it for future generations. The renovation is the most significant upgrade since the museum’s inception in 1935.

Remarkably, every piece of marble and molding that was removed during construction was cataloged, numbered, and stored, only to be reinstalled with exacting care. Some rooms were disassembled and then rebuilt exactly as they were, with improved lighting.

The highlight once again for me is the Garden Court.

Live classical musicians were performing beside the indoor fountain.

The 70th Street Garden is beautifully landscaped around the reflecting pool.

The Gift Shop offers a fabulous shopping opportunity including one of a kind pieces, rare perfumes and cool caps. The new cafe opening is imminent.

The Frick’s collection focuses on European art from the 14th to the 19th centuries with notables such as, Titian, Bellini, El Greco, Gainsborough and Turner.

Walking through, you feel like you’re time-traveling through the tastes of a brilliant, if complicated, man, Henry Clay Frick. A steel magnate with a passion for art, Frick intended his home to become a museum after his death in 1919. He wanted people not just to see his collection, but to feel what it meant to live with art.

The Frick Collection 1 East 70th Street New York City. Open Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday, Sunday 11am-6pm, Friday 11am-9pm.