One month ago, the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, Massachusetts, announced that it had received a major gift worth several hundred million dollars: some 331 artworks from the Renaissance and later, from artists such as Hans Memling, Peter Paul Rubens, Parmigianino, Elisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun, Jean-Antoine Watteau and Gian Lorenzo Bernini. The donation comes to the museum from the foundation of the late longtime supporter Aso Tavitian, which also gave the funds for a new wing in which to display the gift. We caught up with the museum’s director Olivier Meslay to hear more about its impact

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Congratulations on this major gift. You’ve described it as the “most transformational gift” since the founding bequest from the collectors Sterling and Francine Clark. Why is it so transformative?

This donation introduces the works of more than 100 artists to the Clark’s permanent collection, both enhancing and expanding the scope of our collection. The artists whose works are included in the Tavitian gift are among some of the most important in art history, particularly from the Renaissance and early modern eras, including Jacopo da Pontormo, Jan Van Eyck, Gian Lorenzo Bernini and Anthony Van Dyck. And yet, many of the works included in the gift are by artists who are unknown. The gift is also transformational in that nearly half of the works are sculpture, a medium that has not previously been a major strength of the Clark’s collection. The gift adds 130 sculptures to the Clark’s holdings, which quadruples the total........

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