BOSTON – Works by Pablo Picasso, Mary Cassatt and Winslow Homer are among 30 pieces of art worth more than $20 million that alumnus and legendary investment manager Peter Lynch is donating to Boston College's art museum, the university announced Tuesday.
The works — 27 paintings and three drawings — were collected by Lynch and his late wife Carolyn.
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The donation includes a $5 million grant to support the ongoing curation and exhibition at the McMullen Museum of Art of what will be called the Carolyn A. and Peter S. Lynch Collection, making the total gift one of the largest in the Jesuit university's history.
Lynch, a 1965 Boston College graduate and vice chairman of Fidelity Management and Research Co., said his goal is to inspire students and visitors to the museum as he was inspired when he developed an appreciation for art as a boy on visits to Boston's Museum of Fine Arts.
“My hope is that this artwork, all of which my wife Carolyn and I collected during our 50 years together, will help students to develop a deeper understanding of art and its importance as a form of expression,” Lynch said in a statement. “All students definitely can learn from this collection, which includes a diversity of styles of painting, many of which depict the natural beauty of our country from its most celebrated painters."
The collection includes Picasso’s drawing “Head; Homer’s painting “Grace Hoops"; and Cassatt’s watercolor “Mother and Child."
The collection also includes works by John Singer Sargent, Albert Bierstadt and Jack Butler Yeats.
Nancy Netzer, the McMullen Museum's director, called it a transformational gift that will be used to initiate new research on the works.
“I know that the collection was sought after by other museums, but I wanted it to go to my alma mater, which dramatically improved my life, and where my father taught mathematics and physics, my wife proudly received an honorary degree in 2009, and my daughter Annie spent four wonderful and productive years,” Lynch said.