SUZANNE VALENSTEIN

VALENSTEIN--Suzanne Gebhart. Suzanne Gebhart Valenstein, a longtime research curator in the Department of Asian Art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, died on November 2, 2025. She was 97. Born on July 17, 1928, in Baltimore, MD, Mrs. Valenstein devoted her career to the study of Chinese ceramics. Her first publication, Ming Porcelains, was the catalogue for an exhibition she curated for China House Gallery in New York in 1970. Her meticulous scholarship and curatorial work at the Met, where she worked for thirty-five years, culminated in the publication of A Handbook of Chinese Ceramics published by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1975. She co-authored several more volumes for the museum and her final scholarly monograph, in 2015, was devoted to the study of a pottery figure of a Tang-dynasty Sogdian wine merchant. Mrs. Valenstein was a passionate supporter of the University of Maryland, particularly through her commitment to the University of Maryland Incentive Awards scholarship program, which provides opportunities for students from underrepresented backgrounds. She was also passionate about music, whether jazz at the 92nd Street Y or Gilbert and Sullivan. Mrs. Valenstein was the widow of Murray Valenstein, her beloved husband.