Named for the National Museum of Asian Art’s founder, Charles Lang Freer, the medal has been awarded since its inauguration in 1956. The Freer Medal honors people who, over the course of a career, have contributed in a substantial way to the understanding of the arts of Asia. In 2023, as part of the Museum’s centennial celebrations, the Charles Lang Freer Medal was awarded to Gülru Necipoğlu, the Aga Khan Professor and Director of the Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture at Harvard University’s History of Art and Architecture Department, for her lifetime of work in the arts of the...