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One of a pair of lion sculptures by Edward Kemeys that guard the entrance to the Art Institute of Chicago. Photo by Kim Scarborough, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States license.

Chicago’s Art Institute receives historic money donation

Catherine Saunders-Watson
Catherine Saunders-Watson
One of a pair of lion sculptures by Edward Kemeys that guard the entrance to the Art Institute of Chicago. Photo by Kim Scarborough, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States license.
One of a pair of lion sculptures by Edward Kemeys that guard the entrance to the Art Institute of Chicago. Photo by Kim Scarborough, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States license.

CHICAGO (AP) – The Art Institute of Chicago has received two donations totaling $70 million, including a $50 million gift that amounts to the largest monetary donation in the museum’s history.

The museum announced the donations on Tuesday. The $50 million unrestricted gift comes from museum trustee Janet Duchossois and her husband.

Another $20 million came from board chairman Robert Levy and his wife to be used for operations and acquisitions.

The Chicago Tribune reports that Art Institute President James Rondeau says there are no specific, immediate plans for the new money.

Rondeau says the “gifts are allowing us to now start to conceive what our future might look like, rather than specifically funding an existing plan.”

Before Tuesday, the museum’s largest cash gift was a $35 million donation in 2015 from late Massachusetts collector Dorothy Braude Edinburg.

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Information from: Chicago Tribune, http://www.chicagotribune.com