Virginia Institutions to Share $115-Million Bequest

The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts will receive $70-million and Virginia Commonwealth University $45-million from trusts created by a prominent Richmond couple that died in the 1950s, says the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

The gifts, the largest in the history of both institutions, flow from the trusts of Arthur Graham Glasgow and Margaret Branch Glasgow, after the death of the last beneficiary, their 104-year-old son-in-law.

The recently expanded museum will put $60-million into an endowment for art purchases. Alex Nyerges, the museum’s director, called the gift “a game changer” that vaults the institution into seventh place among U.S. art museums in acquisition funds.

Virginia Commonwealth’s share will support its medical school’s work in cancer research and prevention and degenerative diseases.

An additional $10-million freed from the trusts will be distributed among 13 other charities, churches, and health and education institutions, most of them also in the Richmond area.