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The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, photographed in May 2017 from an angle that shows the E Claiborne and Lora Robins Sculpture Gardens. On March 15, the museum announced it had received a gift of $60 million from James W. McGlothlin and Frances Gibson McGlothlin. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons, photo credit: Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. Shared under the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 4.0 International license.

Virginia museum receives gift worth nearly $60 million

Sheila Gibson Stoodley
Sheila Gibson Stoodley
The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, photographed in May 2017 from an angle that shows the E Claiborne and Lora Robins Sculpture Gardens. On March 15, the museum announced it had received a gift of $60 million from James W. McGlothlin and Frances Gibson McGlothlin. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons, photo credit: Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. Shared under the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 4.0 International license.
The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, photographed in May 2017 from an angle that shows the E Claiborne and Lora Robins Sculpture Gardens. On March 15, the museum announced it had received a gift of $60 million from James W. McGlothlin and Frances Gibson McGlothlin. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons, photo credit: Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. Shared under the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 4.0 International license.

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) – The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts announces that it has received a gift worth nearly $60 million, including a significant contribution to the museum’s expansion campaign and 15 paintings by prominent American artists.

The gift from longtime patrons James W. McGlothlin and Frances Gibson McGlothlin is the largest private gift in the museum’s expansion campaign, which will culminate in a second major wing at the museum named after the couple.

Alex Nyerges, VMFA’s director and chief executive officer, said in a news release that the gift “will help the museum tell a more nuanced and complete story of the nation’s artistic contributions and ensure that these works will continue to be accessible to all Virginians.”

The McGlothlins’ donation includes works by American masters from the 19th and 20th centuries, including paintings by Milton Avery, Albert Bierstadt, Frederick Carl Frieseke, Marsden Hartley, George Luks, Maurice Prendergast, Theodore Robinson, Norman Rockwell, John Singer Sargent, John Sloan and Andrew Wyeth.

Last June, the museum announced that it had begun a $190 million expansion and renovation project, anticipated to be completed in 2026.

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Virginia Museum of Fine Arts