Dallas Art Museum Receives $245-Million From 3 Couples

A group of longtime contributors to the Dallas Museum of Art have pledged their private collections to the

institution, a windfall that includes more than 800 works by modern and contemporary masters such as Marcel Duchamp, Willem de Kooning, Mark Rothko, and Cy Twombly. The donors also gave a house designed by the architect Richard Meier and cash gifts to the museum’s endowment that together with the collections total nearly $245-million.

The gifts were triggered by a challenge from Marguerite Hoffman, chairman of the museum’s board, and her husband, Robert, who co-chairs the museum’s $185-million fund-raising campaign. The couple, whose wealth derives from the Coca-Cola Bottling Group Southwest, said they would bequeath $20-million to the endowment as well as their art collection, valued at up to $150-million, and make a gift to the campaign when it raised $100-million.

Two other Dallas couples, both friends of the Hoffmans, then followed with similar bequests.

Howard Rachofsky, a former hedge-funds manager, and his wife, Cindy, committed their collection, which includes prominent Minimalist artwork, and also offered their Meier-designed home and an endowment for maintaining the building.

Rusty Rose, the founder of Cardinal Investments who was at one time a part owner of the Texas Rangers baseball team, and his wife, Deedie, then pledged their collection, which includes sculpture, modern furniture, and handmade objects by contemporary artists. Ms. Rachofsky serves on the museum’s board and Ms. Rose is a former board president. All three couples that made the gifts have been supporting the museum since the 1970s.

The challenge from the Hoffmans also led to a $32-million gift from an anonymous donor for the museum’s endowment, and a pledge of a Claude Monet painting from Margaret McDermott, the widow of Eugene McDermott, who founded Texas Instruments.

$400-Million Bequest

The series of donations follows a recent bequest to another Texas art institution, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Last year, Caroline Wiess Law, an oil heiress, left art and money now valued at $400-million to the museum and its endowment. The museum previously said the gift was worth half that sum. (The bequest from Ms. Law made her one of the most generous donors of 2004.)

In addition to their size, the pledges to the Dallas Museum are unusual because they have involved so much collaboration among the donors. Charlie Wylie, the museum’s curator of contemporary art, said the collectors have defined what interests them and discussed their acquisitions to make sure they don’t overlap.

“The Dallas collecting community is exceptionally tight knit,” said Ms. Hoffman. “We’re working together to build complementary strengths.”