The Museum of Modern Art announced today two significant acquisitions in its photography department: 39 images by Richard Avedon and some 60 19th-century photographs from the collection of Suzanne Winsberg.

The Avedon photographs are part purchase, part a gift from his foundation, established before his death in 2004, and include portraits of Marilyn Monroe, Marcel Duchamp, Andy Warhol, and Malcolm X as well as a series documenting the declining health and eventual death of the his father, Jacob Israel Avedon.

Chief photography curator Peter Galassi said of the acquisition that it was one he "had discussed with the photographer himself and about which he was very enthusiastic."

The Winsberg images come as a bequest and include works dating from 1847 to 1893 by such artists as douard-Denis Baldus, Nadar, and Gustave Le Gray. Winsberg, who died last year, began collecting them while living in Paris in the 1970s, when the market for photography was heating up.

Selections from both collections go on view at the museum today and will remain on display through March 22.