Unicef Gets Big Art Donation; Other Gifts

The United Nations Children’s Fund, or Unicef, has received a bequest of artworks worth an estimated $40-million.

Jeanne Gaffé, who died last year, donated a collection of 25 paintings and sculptures, including works by Braque, Léger, Miró, Magritte, Picasso, and Renoir, to benefit the children’s charity, in New York.

Mrs. Gaffé, of Cagnes-sur-Mer, in France, had inherited the pieces from her husband, René, a Belgian businessman who died in 1968. They will be sold by Christie’s, an auction house in New York.

Other big gifts:

Denver Museum of Nature and Science: $4-million from Mike A. Leprino, the retired president of Leprino Foods, in Denver, to build a new atrium for the museum.

Houston Baptist U.: $4.6-million bequest from Michele Mellinger, of Houston, and his wife, Gwen Avenell Mellinger, to endow vocal-music and nursing scholarships, and for unrestricted use.

U. of Colorado at Boulder: $1.5-million from Bob Charles, of Boulder, who owned several McDonald’s franchises in Colorado, and his wife, Judy, to endow a music professorship.

U. of Kentucky (Lexington): $1-million from Lucille Caudill Little, of Lexington, Ky., whose late husband was a farmer and raised thoroughbred horses, to establish a fund that will help the university’s fine-arts library purchase books and other research materials.

U. of Oregon (Eugene): $10-million from Bernice Ingalls Staton, of Idaho Falls, Idaho, who attended the university for two years, and whose late husband was an executive at American International Group, an insurance company in New York, to provide academic scholarships for students from Oregon.

U. of Virginia’s College at Wise: $2.5-million from a donor who wishes to remain anonymous, to help build a student center.

U. of Wyoming (Laramie): $1-million from Brainerd (Nip) Mears, a retired professor at the university, and his wife, Anne, a horse breeder and trainer, to endow a professorship in the geology and geophysics department.

U.S. Naval Academy Foundation (Annapolis, Md.): $2-million from an anonymous donor to establish a professorship in aerospace engineering in honor of Robert A. Heinlein, the science-fiction author, who graduated from the academy.

Wake Forest U. (Winston-Salem, N.C.): $7-million bequest from W. Keith Stamey, a co-owner and president of Stamey’s Barbecue, in Greensboro, N.C., who died last year, to endow a scholarship program for students with financial need.

Washington U. (St. Louis): $3-million pledge from Robert Skandalaris, chairman of Noble International, a holding company in Bloomfield Hills, Mich., and his wife, Julie, to establish a program in entrepreneurial studies at the business school.

Western Maryland College (Westminster): $8-million bequest from Catharine (Kitty) Welker Eaton, of Royal Oak, Md., who died in 1999, and her husband, Thomas Howard Eaton, a retired executive at Johns Manville Corporation, now owned by Berkshire Hathaway, who died in 1995. The couple earmarked their donation for the college’s endowment.