The New York Times > Arts > Art & Design > MoMA to Receive Its Largest Cash Gift

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The New York Times > Arts > Art & Design > MoMA to Receive Its Largest Cash Gift

MoMA to Receive Its Largest Cash Gift

By CAROL VOGEL

Published: April 13, 2005

David Rockefeller, chairman emeritus of the Museum of Modern Art, said yesterday that he had pledged $100 million toward its endowment - the biggest cash gift ever given to the museum.

Mr. Rockefeller said the gift was intended to shore up public programs at the Modern, which just completed an ambitious $858 million expansion that more than doubled its size.

Mr. Rockefeller, who is 89, said the museum would receive the money after his death. In the meantime, he said, he would give the Modern $5 million a year as if the money were already invested in the endowment.

"It seemed like the right time," he said during an interview in his Rockefeller Center office, filled with paintings and drawings by Gauguin, Picasso and Signac. "The museum is at a stage now where it has just acquired a new building and has never had a better reputation in the world."

The Modern's director, Glenn D. Lowry, said the gift would enable the museum to bolster its educational programs, including lectures and school initiatives, and would also help finance future exhibitions. The cost of organizing museum shows has soared in recent years because of the rising costs of shipping and terrorism insurance.

"It makes the impact immediate," Richard E. Salomon, a longtime trustee, said of the gift, which he helped Mr. Rockefeller structure so that the Modern could start receiving money immediately.

Mr. Salomon said he hoped the gift would spur the museum's other trustees, who were informed of it yesterday afternoon, to increase their donations.

The endowment is currently valued at about $475 million. Mr. Lowry said, "Our hope is that David's pledge will be matched, thus taking the museum above $900 million."

In a spirit of friendly competition, many of the Modern's trustees have donated vast amounts of cash and art since the museum embarked on its capital campaign for the new building seven years ago. About 10 have given upwards of $15 million apiece and have had spaces in the building named after them.

So far, officials said, the museum has raised $720 million of the $858 million for the building campaign.

Ronald S. Lauder, the museum's chairman for the past decade, is also its second-largest supporter, having given more than $65 million to the latest campaign alone. He has also donated works by Picasso, Matisse and Richard Serra.

The largest cash gift to an American museum is thought to be a $330 million bequest by the Texas philanthropist Caroline Wiess Law to the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston.

Mr. Rockefeller noted that the Modern's last fund-raising campaign centered on construction and acquisitions, rather than on helping to expand the endowment to pay for the museum's programs and education.

Mr. Rockefeller has watched the museum grow from its inception. His mother, Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, founded the Modern with her friends Lizzie P. Bliss and Mary Sullivan at a time when few people took modern art seriously. The museum was first housed in rented space in the Heckscher Building at Fifth Avenue and 56th Street and later in a town house on West 53rd Street and other buildings, many of them Rockefeller homes.

"My own interest in art was because of my mother," Mr. Rockefeller said. "My father didn't like contemporary art, so he didn't give her large sums to spend. So she began buying prints and drawings. During my school days I remember sitting in on many of the early meetings."

Over the years Mr. Rockefeller has been a major benefactor, giving or pledging works of art as well as cash. For the recent $858 million capital campaign, he donated $77 million in cash. In his lifetime he will have given either cash or pledges totaling $200 million, excluding 17 artworks - some promised, others given - that include paintings by Cézanne, Gauguin, Matisse and Picasso and drawings by Cézanne and Picasso.

Mr. Rockefeller said he saw the museum's growth as "evolving in a logical way." He also said he stood behind the board's decision to charge visitors $20, more than any other New York museum.

"I was an honorary member of the board and sat in on the meetings where this was discussed," he said. "We have programs for children, young people under 16, who can come in for free. We also have free Fridays. Our membership is $75, which includes free admission, so it doesn't take long to realize the benefits. I don't feel embarrassed by the $20. People who are not able to pay it have other ways of coming to the museum."

Mr. Lowry, the museum's director, said of the gift: "This will give us the kind of stability to do adventurous exhibitions and public programs. It gives us a kind of financial underpinning that means that instead of having to struggle, we can be more comfortable."