Art Pieces Worth $100-Million Donated to Colby College

By Maria Di Mento

Peter H. Lunder, a retired businessman, and his wife, Paula, have pledged to give Colby College Museum of Art, in Waterville, Maine, an extensive collection of art valued at more than $100-million. The gift includes works by Mary Cassatt, Edward Hopper, Sol LeWitt, John Singer Sargent, and other prominent artists. The collection of about 500 paintings and sculptures also includes 40 ancient Chinese sculptures and 201 prints by James McNeill Whistler, which museum officals say is the largest single collection of Whistlers to be given to an American academic museum.

The Lunders have served on the Colby museum’s Board of Governors since 1995. Mr. Lunder graduated from Colby in 1956.

Along with the art collection, the Lunders are giving the Colby museum an additional gift of cash that will go toward the care and management of the collection, said William D. Adams, president of Colby.

Mr. Adams would not say exactly how the pledge of the art collection is structured, or how much money Mr. and Ms. Lunder are donating, but he said the cash portion will be paid out over a period of years. The couple has also lent the museum 80 pieces from the collection, which the museum is currently exhibiting.

The Lunders began collecting European art in the 1970s, but amassed the bulk of their collection of American art in the 1980s and 90s, said Sharon Corwin, the museum’s director and chief curator.

Ms. Corwin said the couple wanted the collection to stay in Maine, where they have lived for most of their lives, and they wanted it to be used for educational purposes, both for Colby students and residents of central Maine.

Elizabeth Broun, director of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, in Washington, who has known the Lunders for a number of years, called the entire collection the “envy of museums around the country.”

Although Colby officials won’t disclose a dollar amount, Mr. and Ms. Lunder donated money to the museum in past years for a gallery wing and they have endowed a curatorial position there. The couple has also donated to Colby’s endowment, and to construction projects at the college over the years, said Mr. Adams.