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The Largest Cash Gifts to U.S. Art Institutions So Far in 2026

From Mitchell Rales’ $116 million gift to D.C.’s National Gallery to major commitments from Silicon Valley, foundations and dedicated cultural patrons, these donations are shaping access to art and institutional futures.

When it comes to estate planning, donating to a museum can be one of the most forward-looking choices a collector or philanthropist can make, combining cultural commitment with a degree of strategic self-interest. Whether the gift takes the form of funds or artworks, it can strengthen an institution's collection and programming and expand access for the communities it serves while also letting donors build lasting legacies and avoid certain tax burdens, sparing their heirs some of the costs and complications of managing an inherited collection. As the great generational wealth transfer unfolds, museums across the country have received a remarkable number of major cash donations in the first half of this year alone. Here are some of the most notable.

This year's top donations

$116M to the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.

$75M for the Jen-Hsun and Lori Huang College of Art, Architecture and Design at Vanderbilt University

$23M to New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art

$15M to the Phillips Collection in D.C.

$3M to the Fralin Museum of Art at the University of Virginia

$3M to the Rockwell Museum in Corning, New York

$2M to the Memorial Art Gallery at the University of Rochester

$1.5 Million to the NSU Art Museum in Fort Lauderdale

$1M and 100 ceramics works to the Oakland Museum of California

$1M to the National Museum of Mexican Art in Chicago

$116M to the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.

From the Mitchell P. Rales Family Foundation

The National Gallery of Art in Washington faced considerable political scrutiny this year, as did many federally supported cultural institutions. In April, however, the museum received a historic, transformative gift of $116 million from the Mitchell P. Rales Family Foundation in honor of the country's 250th anniversary. The gift endows in perpetuity Across the Nation, the museum's nationwide lending program launched in 2025, which lets participating museums receive works from the National Gallery on long-term loan at no cost. Since the program launched in spring 2025, it has reached nearly 900,000 visitors across 10 partner museums. The next cycle of Across the Nation will open in fall 2027 and run through 2029, with partner institutions to be announced.Rales, who is on Forbes's 2026 Billionaires list, has been a leading benefactor of the National Gallery for two decades. The American businessman co-founded Danaher Corporation with his brother Steven Rales in 1984 and established the art museum Glenstone with his wife, Emily Wei Rales, in 2006. In 2021, Rales donated $1.9 billion to the Glenstone Foundation, increasing the museum's assets to $4.6 billion, nearly equal to those of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. He served as president of the National Gallery of Art from 2019 to 2024.

$75M for the Jen-Hsun and Lori Huang College of Art, Architecture and Design at Vanderbilt University

From Jensen Huang and Lori Huang

If the art world has not yet succeeded in attracting the immense wealth accumulating in the technology industry, some of its biggest entrepreneurs are involved in cultural production........

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