Portrait of a Young Man by Peter Paul Rubens, recently donated to the Clark Art Institute
The Clark Art Institute, a museum in a small western Massachusetts town, has recently received a priceless treasure trove of European art.
The Tavitian Foundation, established by the Bulgarian-born software executive Aso Tavitian, has made a historic donation to the Clark Art Institute. This generous gift includes 331 artworks and a $45 million fund for their care and preservation. The fund will also support the construction of a new Tavitian wing, designed by Annabelle Seldorff and set to be completed in 2028. The Tavitian donation, spanning from the Renaissance to the nineteenth century, features 132 paintings, 130 sculptures, 39 drawings, and 30 decorative pieces. Notable artists such as Vigée Le Brun, Parmigianino, Rubens, Van Eyck, and Watteau are represented, and the addition of statues by Bernini and Andrea della Robbia will make the museum’s sculpture collection far more robust.
The Clark has a fascinating origin story. Located in Williamstown, Massachusetts, it is one of the three most prominent cultural centers of the Berkshire Mountains in the western part of the state. Robert Sterling Clark, the heir to the Singer sewing machine fortune, amassed an impressive art collection with his wife Francine during the 1920s and 1930s. With the Second World War giving way to the Cold War in the late 1940s, the Clarks became worried about their collection’s safety. They, therefore, decided to look for a rural location to store their art, away from a large urban center that would be at risk of a Soviet nuclear strike, should one occur. It may seem like a rather strange and silly reason to build your museum three hours from both Boston and New York, yet nuclear annihilation is as good a reason as any to get museum visitors out of the city. The Clark Art Institute eventually opened to the public in 1955. Along with the Williams College Museum of Art and the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, the Clark is one of the cultural epicenters of western Massachusetts.
Before passing away in 2020, Aso Tavitian had a close relationship with the Clark Institute. He had served on its board of trustees between 2006 and 2012, frequently loaning works to the museum from his own collection for exhibitions. He also maintained close ties with the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Frick Collection. The Tavitian Foundation plans to sell off the remaining nine hundred works in Tavitian’s collection through a series of sales held at Sotheby’s starting in February 2025. The substantial gift from his namesake foundation to the Clark aligns with his expressed wishes before his death. As a result, even greater crowds will hopefully flock to this quiet part of New England to appreciate what the museum administration calls a “most transformational gift”.