In what year did MoMA acquire the painting?

The Museum of Modern Art acquired The Persistence of Memory in 1934.

The painting was made by Salvador Dalí in 1931 and first exhibited in 1932 at the Julien Levy Gallery in New York. Two years later, an anonymous donor gave it to MoMA, where it became part of the museum’s modern-art collection.

The acquisition date is commonly confused with 1931, the year of the painting’s creation, or 1932, the year of its first exhibition. Neither date marks its entry into MoMA. The museum’s accession number, 162.1934, also reflects the 1934 acquisition year.

The work has remained associated with MoMA ever since and is one of the institution’s best-known Surrealist paintings. Its soft watches, barren landscape, ants, and distorted organic form made it an especially memorable example of Dalí’s dreamlike visual language.