WATERVILLE, Maine, May 21 (UPI) -- A Maine couple will donate some 500 paintings, a $100 million collection that includes many canvases by American artists, to Colby College.
And the college's Museum of Art, needing space to exhibit the gift from Peter and Paula Crane Lunder, will build a new wing scheduled to open in 2013, The Boston Globe reported.
The collection's 500 works include works by Jenny Holzer, Winslow Homer, Edward Hopper, Sol LeWitt, Alex Katz, Georgia O'Keeffe, John Singer Sargent and James McNeill Whistler.
Sharon Corwin, the art museum's director, said the collection significantly boosts Colby's holdings in American art.
"The depth and breadth of the collection fills in many holes," she said. "We didn't have a John Singer Sargent. Now we have four, and other instances like that. We've become a real center for the study of American art."
The Lunders have several links to the Waterville, Maine, college, the Globe reported. Both serve on boards for the university -- Peter Lunder, a Colby graduate, as a life overseer, Paula Crane Lunder as a life trustee. The Lunders also have been involved with the institution's art museum.
