Crisis at the Corcoran Gallery?

Needing more money and desiring more space, the Corcoran Gallery of Art is considering selling its historic Beaux-Arts building and moving to a different location — perhaps out of the city and into the Maryland or Virginia suburbs.

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"The Sons of God Saw the Daughters of Men That They Were Fair,” a marble sculpture by Daniel Chester French, sits on the grand staircase of the Corcoran Gallery of Art building.

Bill O'Leary / The Washington Post

This photo of William Wilson Corcoran was taken by M.B. Brady in 1883, just five years before the art collector and philanthropist died at age 89. After 20 years of planning, the Corcoran Gallery of Art finally opened in what is now the Renwick Gallery building on Jan. 19, 1874.

M. B. Brady

The Corcoran Art Gallery soon outgrew its space and acquired a lot on 17th Street and New York Avenue NW. Architect Ernest Flagg designed a new Beaux-Arts building that gave the museum room to house its collection and more. After four years of construction, the building opened to the public in January 1897. This photo was taken between 1918 and 1920.

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division

The Corcoran College of Art and Design was founded in 1890. The photo of this art class at the gallery was around 1920.

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division

A photo of Baroness Eveline Maydell, a prominent silhouette artist, at the Corcoran Gallery of Art, dated April 2, 1925.

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division

An installation view of the front galleries during the Corcoran Gallery of Art’s 11th Biennial in 1928.

Corcoran Gallery of Art

June 30, 1989

During protests over the Corcoran Gallery of Art’s cancellation of a Robert Mapplethorpe exhibit in 1989, demonstrators from the Coalition of Washington Arts projected slides made from the artists works onto the side of the museum. This projection is one of his self portraits, from 1980.

Carol Guzy / The Washington Post

Nov. 19, 1997

The Corcoran College of Art and Design expanded its campus to Georgetown after purchasing the Fillmore School on 35th Street NW.

Susan Biddle / The Washington Post

June 23, 1999

The Corcoran Gallery of Art selected architect Frank Gehry, right, to design a large addition to the museum and school. When the grand plans ultimately were shelved in 2005, David Levy, the Corcoran president shown here with Gehry, resigned.

Susan Biddle / The Washington Post

The original home of the Corcoran Gallery of Art, designed by James Renwick and built at the corner of Pennsylvania Avenue and 17th Street, was sold to the U.S. government after the Corcoran moved. It’s now called the Renwick Gallery and houses the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s craft and decorative art exhibitions.

Tom Allen / The Washington Post

The Corcoran Gallery of Art hosted Richard Avedon’s “Portraits of Power” exhibit from Sept. 13, 2008, through Jan. 25, 2009. The exhibit pulled together more than 200 of Avedon’s political portraits of the elite power players from the United States.

Karen Bleier / AFP/Getty Images

March 28, 2002

Several dresses from first lady Jacqueline Kennedy’s trip to India and Pakistan in March 1962 were displayed at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in 2002 as part of the “Jacqueline Kennedy: The White House Years” exhibit. The suits and accessories came the collection of the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston.

Stephen Jaffe / AFP/Getty Images

Sept. 9, 2008

A woman looks at portraits of Donald Rumsfeld, left, and F. Edward Hebert, part of the Richard Avedon “Portraits of Power” exhibit at the Corcoran Gallery of Art. The two images originally appeared as a Rolling Stone Magazine piece called “The Family” in 1976.

Karen Bleier / AFP/Getty Images

July 13, 2001

Azar Nafisi, author of “Reading Lolita in Tehran,” addresses visitors to the Corcoran Gallery of Art as part of the traveling exhibition of protest art, "Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here.”

Bill O'Leary / The Washington Post

Feb. 11, 2012

Near the end of the “30 Americans” exhibit at the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Holly Bass performed her endurance performance, "Moneymaker," for seven hours on a performance bridge at the museum.

Kate Warren

July 12, 2012

Multiple doorways guide visitors through the European and American wing of the Corcoran Gallery of Art. The building, which houses the museum and school, is 126,000 square feet, but the museum feels it has outgrown its home.

Bill O'Leary / The Washington Post

June 4, 2012

Fred Bollerer, left, is director of the Corcoran Gallery of Art, but he plans to retire at the end of this year. Harry Hopper, right, a venture capitalist and contemporary art collector, is chairman of the board of trustees.

Nikki Kahn / The Washington Post

"The Sons of God Saw the Daughters of Men That They Were Fair,” a marble sculpture by Daniel Chester French, sits on the grand staircase of the Corcoran Gallery of Art building. French sculpted the piece in 1923, not long after his more famous work was dedicated a few blocks away: the statue of the 16th president in the Lincoln Memorial.

Bill O'Leary / The Washington Post

July 12, 2012

Artwork both ancient, such as the sculpture on the right, and recent, such as Gene Davis’s “Junkie’s Curtain” painting above the stairs, coexist in historic Beaux-Arts building of the Corcoran Gallery of Art.

Bill O'Leary / The Washington Post

July 12, 2012

A view of the second story atrium of the Corcoran Gallery of Art building. Architect Ernest Flagg designed the Beaux-Arts building, the museum’s second home, and it opened in January 1897. Now, the Corcoran is considering selling the historic building.

Bill O'Leary / The Washington Post

July 12, 2012

The two-story atrium in the 19th century Corcoran Gallery of Art building. If the museum stays in the century-old Beaux-Arts building on 17th Street NW, the board says it will cost $130 million for renovations.

Bill O'Leary / The Washington Post

June 24, 2011

Chef Todd Gray opened a cafe, Todd Gray’s Muse, in the Corcoran Gallery of Art in June 2011.

Mark Gail / The Washington Post

July 12, 2012

One of the sculpted lions that sit on either side of the main entrance to the Corcoran Gallery of Art. The museum purchased the lions in 1888 for $1,900 at the auction of the estate of Bill Holliday, who founded the Pony Express. They were cast from molds made from the lions at the tomb of Clement XIII in St. Peter’s Basilica, which were sculpted by Antonio Canova.

Bill O'Leary / The Washington Post

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