Metropolitan Museum Gets European Art Worth $300-Million; Other Recent Gifts

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, in New York, has received a collection of 20th-century European art valued at up to $300-million.

Natasha Gelman, who died May 2 in Cuernavaca, Mexico, bequeathed 85 art works that she and her husband, Jacques, had amassed over 50 years. The trove includes works by Braque, Matisse, Picasso, and more than two dozen other painters who composed the celebrated “School of Paris,” as well as a few more-recent works by such artists as Francis Bacon.

Mrs. Gelman was an honorary trustee of the Met; Mr. Gelman, who died in 1986, was a film producer.

Several other non-profit organizations have received big gifts:

* The University of Pennsylvania has received $40-million — all of it unrestricted — from Jon M. Huntsman of Salt Lake City, chairman of the chemical company Huntsman Corporation, for the Wharton School.

* The University of Nebraska at Lincoln has received a pledge of $32.2-million over five years from C. Edward and Carole L. McVaney of Denver, both graduates of the institution. Mr. McVaney is chief executive of J. D. Edwards, a company that develops business software; the couple made the gift to create an honors program in computer science and management and a residential center for program participants.

* The University of South Carolina has received $20-million from Robert C. McNair, chief executive of Cogen Technologies Energy Group, in Houston. Mr. McNair designated his gift to support scholarships.

* Herbert A. Allen, chief executive officer of the New York investment bankers Allen & Company, has given $20-million to Williams College to construct a new performance space for theater and dance.

* The Massachusetts Institute of Technology has received $15-million from Alexander W. Dreyfoos, president of Photo Electronics Corporation, in West Palm Beach, Fla., to construct a multidisciplinary center.

Other recent gifts:

Battle Lake Schools (Minn.): Stock valued at $1,800,000 from the estate of Royal Broberg of Los Angeles, a lawyer, for the building fund. Battle Lake Schools is a pre-kindergarten-through-12th-grade public school.

Carthage College (Wis.): $11,000,000 from Pat Tarble of Los Angeles, widow of Newton E. Tarble, co-founder of the tool company Snap-on Inc., to begin construction of an athletics and recreation complex.

College of Charleston (S.C.): $1,500,000 from Jack Tate of Greenville, S.C., founder of Baby Superstore, for undergraduate scholarships.

College of Notre Dame (Cal.): $1,200,000 bequest from the estate of Mary Frances Cunningham of San Francisco, for scholarships.

Columbia U. (N.Y.): $1,000,000 from Ken Boxley of Beverly Hills, Cal., former chairman of United Publishers Corporation, and his wife, Tess Magsaysay, to endow a scholarship fund at the Teachers College.

Gardner-Webb U. (N.C.): $1,000,000 bequest from the estate of Ralph W. Andrews of Honolulu and San Francisco, who worked for the McGraw-Hill Companies, for scholarships for black male students.

Lambuth U. (Tenn.): $1,500,000 from Ralph S. Hamilton of Germantown, Tenn., chief of ophthalmology at Methodist Hospital, and his wife, Barbara, to expand the campus theater and for academic programs.

Limestone College (S.C.): $1,000,000 from Vivian Elledge Ball of Glen Ellyn, Ill., whose husband, George, founded a seed business, for unrestricted use.

McCormick Theological Seminary (Ill.): $1,300,000 bequest from the estate of Thomas B. Mackie of Chicago, a lawyer, for scholarships.

Millikin U. (Ill.): $8,000,000 from C. D. Perkinson of Decatur, Ill., former owner of the Perkinson Fertilizer Company, and his wife, Pat, to endow and renovate the School of Music.

Phillips Academy (Mass.): $10,000,000 pledge from Oscar L. Tang of New York, a financier and director of Nvest L.P., for scholarships.

U. of Alabama: $1,000,000 from Robert E. Lowder of Montgomery, Ala., chairman of Colonial BancGroup, and his wife, Charlotte, to create an executives-in-residence program.

U. of California at Berkeley: $3,500,000 from Stephen M. Silberstein of Belvedere Tiburon, Cal., co-founder of Innovative Interfaces, a software company, to endow the library fund; preserve archives that document the Free Speech Movement, which began on this campus in 1964; and build a cafe.

U. of Miami: $1,000,000 from Lawrence Barreca of Palm Beach, Fla., a home restorer, and $1,000,000 from Miles Zisson of Palm Beach, an advertising executive, for the patient-care facility at the Bascom Palmer Institute of the Palm Beaches.

U. of Notre Dame (Ind.): $2,000,000 from Gary E. Gigot of Woodinville, Wash., senior vice-president for world-wide products at the ViSio Corporation, a software company, for a center for entrepreneurial studies at the College of Business Administration.

U. of Pennsylvania: $10,000,000 from Chen Fu Koo of Taipei, Taiwan, a businessman, and his sons, Chester and Leslie, to create a new academic facility at the Wharton School.

Wright State U. (Ohio): $1,000,000 bequest from the estate of Oma K. Sells of Dayton, Ohio, whose late husband, William, was a dentist, for scholarships.