Beginning in January 1971, E.A.T. undertook a large-scale effort to assemble a major collection of 30 works by New York artists of the 1960s, raise funds to purchase the collection, and donate it to Moderna Museet in recognition of the museum’s long-time support of American art and artists. Teledyne Corporation in California had worked with Rauschenberg on Mud Muse in a project with The Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Billy Klüver asked Teledyne to donate Mud Muse to the Collection. Thirty artists donated prints to a portfolio to support the project. The works were printed at Styria Studio and housed in a mahogany box designed by the artist, Peter Ballantine.

 

In the fall of 1972, the works were shown at the gallery building at 420 West Broadway in New York and for the occasion a dinner was arranged at Rauschenberg’s building for Princess Christina of Sweden, who was the honorary patron of the Collection. The New York Collection for Stockholm opened at Moderna Museet, in Stockholm in October 1973 with 105  artists and other guests  from New York attending the opening.