Seattle U receives $300 million in art work, donations for art museum

Seattle University announced on Wednesday that they are set to receive more than $300 million dollars in art collections and funds that will help a brand new art museum for the higher-end institution from a long-time alumna and institution contributor.

Philanthropist Richard Hedreen and his late wife Betty collected art pieces that span from the 15th and 16th centuries to modern and contemporary works that will be part of a donation that is set to break records.

The gift will break records as it will be the largest single gift to a university of any kind in Washington State and or the country.

“Seattle University is honored to receive this truly transformational gift from the Hedreens, who have built one of the finest private art collections in the nation,” said Seattle University President Eduardo Peñalver.

The collection is made up of more than 200 works that include paintings, pottery, photography, etchings, sculptures, among other art works.

The collection features works by Jacopo da Pontormo, Jan Lievens, Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun, Luis Egidio Meléndez, Thomas Gainsborough, Willem de Kooning, Robert Rauschenberg, Roy Lichtenstein and Robert Indiana.

Also, photographers like Berenice Abbott, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Irving Penn, Louis Stettner, and Andy Warhol.

And several painters like Cecily Brown, Rashid Johnson, Vic Muniz, have been incorporated in the donation.

The combined body of works are set be valued at more than $300 million. Aside from the collection, $25 million has been set aside to help build a brand new art museum — the Seattle University Museum of Art.

According to Herdeen, the donations were gifted to the university because of Herdeen’s late wife. She passed away in 2022. Elizabeth “Betty” Ann Herdeen was an alumna of the private institution and says that this is his way of honoring her and carrying on her legacy.

No word when the museum is expected to open or the art will be available to the public.