Trustee Gives 367 Works to Whitney

Longtime Whitney trustee, Emily Fisher Landau has pledged 367 works of art from her bountiful collection to the Museum, with a total estimated worth between $50 million and $75 million. The donation was finalized this past week and includes 100 major American artists, from Jasper Johns to Andy Warhol. As the Whitney board is gearing up to vote on a potential $680 million new home downtown in the Meatpacking District, the gift seems to come at a particularly significant time. Landau has been to the potential site, Whitney director Adam D. Weinberg told The New York Times. “She loves the energy there,” he said of the 89-year-old New York philanthropist. “When Emily first started buying contemporary art, the artists were young,” Leonard A. Lauder, emeritus chairman of the Whitney, explained to The Times. “Many of those that she supported are now household names.” With 44 works from Johns, two from Willem de Kooning, 18 from Robert Rauschenberg, four from James Rosenquist, and six from Ed Ruscha, Laudau’s first gift to the Whitney fills a hole in the Museum’s collection.