1951

Portrait of Marcel

American, 1919 - 1996

In 1966, following the completion of his final work, Étant donnés, Marcel Duchamp enlisted the help of his longtime friend---painter and philanthropist William Nelson Copley---to see the work to its final resting place at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Copley was one of the few people to whom Duchamp revealed his secret masterpiece, and its power convinced Copley to purchase the work through his William and Noma Copley Foundation (later the Cassandra Foundation) for $60,000, with the agreement that Étant donnés eventually be donated to the Museum.