[3] In 1876, the museum moved to a highly ornamented brick Gothic Revival building designed by John Hubbard Sturgis and Charles Brigham, noted for its massed architectural terracotta.

From 1916 through 1925, the noted artist John Singer Sargent painted the frescoes that adorn the rotunda and the associated colonnades, using a young Black model, Thomas McKeller, as his inspiration for Apollo and the other Greek gods depicted in these murals.

[11] In 2007, the MFA announced its purchase of a nearby building then occupied by the Forsyth Institute, a dental and craniofacial research organization located at 140 Fenway.

The entire property comprised approximately 107,000 square feet (9,900 m2) on 1.6 acres (0.65 ha) of land, located across the street from the main MFA building.

However, the agency cited growing attendance, a large endowment, and positive cash flow as reasons to believe that the museum's finances would become stable in the near future.

The new wing and adjoining Ruth and Carl J. Shapiro Family Courtyard (a bright, cavernous interior space) were designed in a restrained, contemporary style by the London-based architectural firm Foster and Partners, under the directorship of Thomas T. Difraia and Childs Bertman Tseckares Architects (CBT).

The landscape architecture firm Gustafson Guthrie Nichol redesigned the Huntington Avenue and Fenway entrances, gardens, access roads, and interior courtyards.

Mayor Thomas Menino declared it "Museum of Fine Arts Day", and more than 13,500 visitors attended the opening.

The 12,000-square-foot (1,100 m2) glass-enclosed courtyard now features a 42.5-foot (13.0 m) high glass sculpture, titled the Lime Green Icicle Tower, by Dale Chihuly.

[16] In 2014, the Art of the Americas Wing was recognized for its high architectural achievement by the award of the Harleston Parker Medal, by the Boston Society of Architects.

The garden's kabukimon-style entrance gate was built by Chris Hall of Massachusetts, using traditional Japanese carpentry techniques.

[19] To recover from the drop in attendance caused by the pandemic, a new logo and branding campaign were announced in September 2022, along with renewed community outreach efforts.

[20] In November 2020 a significant number of MFA employees voted to unionize due to a long history of unaddressed issues related to workplace conditions and compensation inequities.

Union representatives cited unresponsive engagement from MFA management over multiple issues including stagnant wages, job security, and workplace diversity, as the reason for the strike.

[36][37] The base of this collection was assembled in the late 19th century through the efforts of four men, Ernest Fenollosa, Kakuzo Okakura, William Sturgis Bigelow, and Edward Sylvester Morse, each of whom had spent time in Japan and admired Japanese art.

In the later Meiji era of Japan, around the turn of the 20th century, government policy deemphasizing Buddhism in favor of Shintoism and financial pressures on temples resulted in a number of Buddhist statues being sold to private collectors.

[46] In April 2024, the museum donated several 14th-century Buddhist Śarīra relics that were in its collection since 1939 to the Jogye Order as part of an agreement to repatriate artifacts taken from Korea during the Japanese Occupation.

About one-quarter of the collection was planned to be housed on the third floor of the museum, along with the book conservation facilities, with the remainder stored off-site.

[48][51] Exhibitions organized by the library staff in coordination with the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts have been debuted two to three times per year.

"[56] The MFA publicly apologized in May 2019 after African-American and mixed-race 12- and 13-year-old visitors were allegedly targeted by employees and told "No food, no drink, and no watermelon", which is considered a racial slur in the US.

[61] The events included special displays related to Cyrus Dallin's 1908 Appeal to the Great Spirit, a popular and sometimes controversial sculpture of a Native American warrior located in front of the Huntington Avenue main entrance since 1912.

[61] Earlier, in March 2019, the MFA had held a special public symposium to discuss the historical background and present-day significance of the sculpture.

[62] In 2020 the MFA had planned to offer 11 annual Community Celebrations, featuring free admission for all visitors, and special events such as dance performances, music, tours, craft demonstrations, and hands-on art making.

The collection topics of the special exhibits are divided into 13 categories: Africa and Oceania; Americas; Ancient Egypt, Nubia and the near East; Ancient Greece and Rome; Asia; Contemporary Art; Europe; Jewelry; Judaica; Musical Instruments; Photography; Prints and Drawings; and Textile and Fashion Arts.