Donated art collection (including Pontormo) worth more than $300 million to Seattle University

Philanthropist Richard Hedreen has givenSeattle University an art collection worth more than $300 million and $25 million as an initial fund aimed at financing the Seattle University Museum of Art. This is the largest donation of art ever made to a U.S. university and the largest gift of any kind ever made to a university in Washington state.

The collection of Mr. and Mrs. Richard and Betty Hedreen, which includes works by Pontormo, Willem de Kooning, Robert Rauschenberg, Roy Lichtenstein, Robert Indiana, Lucian Freud, Andy Warhol, Berenice Abbott, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Cecily Brown and other artists, consists of more than two hundred works, including paintings, ceramics, photographs, etchings, and sculptures, and began sixty years ago when the couple began looking for some works to furnish a new home of their own. Now Richard, widowed by his beloved wife Elizabeth “Betty” Ann, who was an alumna of Seattle University, has decided to donate their remarkable collection, but the two had already contributed to many of the artworks that belong to the University’s permanent collection and were among the major donors to the University’s St. Ignatius Chapel, which is also considered a work of architectural art. “Donating their art collection to Seattle University,” said Richard, “is a way to honor Betty, who passed away in 2022.” “Betty and I always envisioned being custodians of the artworks we acquired, and preserving them for a broader purpose,” he added. “Jesuits place a special emphasis on the arts and humanities, including art history, and this has long been reflected in Seattle University’s Jesuit education and its ties to Seattle’s arts community. My goal is to keep the collection together in the new Seattle University Museum of Art, which will have a profound and lasting impact on students and faculty.”

In fact, the intent of this donation is to create a Seattle University teaching museum that will be a true extension ofclassroom learning, and one that area schools and other arts and cultural organizations will also have access to. “I think the same people who go to the Seattle Art Museum will also look for the Seattle University museum,” Hedreen later commented. “It will have a better collection than other museums and will be an attractive place for people who already visit art galleries, art collectors, and people generally interested in art.”

“Seattle University is honored to receive this gift from the Hedreens, who have built one of the finest private art collections in the nation,” said Seattle University President Eduardo Peñalver. “The new museum will serve as a bridge between our campus and the city, expanding access to the arts for traditionally disadvantaged communities and helping us fulfill our mission to educate.”

Photo by Yosef Kalinko.

Donated art collection (including Pontormo) worth more than $300 million to Seattle University

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