Huntington Library receives $100 million donation

on Tuesday,November 16,2010 19:11

Libraries are valuable resources for not only students, but the public as well. However, budget shortfalls and a lack of donations have been to blame for the closing of many libraries across the country. This week, the Huntington Library art collections and botanical gardens in southern California received a donation that put its money woes on the back burner.

The Huntington Library received an estimated $100 million from a Los Angeles art patron, which is almost 40 percent of the institution's endowment. This is the largest donation the library has received since $21 million was given by Charles and Nancy Munger in 2002.

"A number of museums have received significant gifts when you value the art and cash donations together," Huntington president Steven Koblik told the Los Angeles Times. "But as a pure cash gift, this has very few equivalents - except for the founding gifts that create institutions."

The donation is one of the highest made in history. In 2005, David Rockefeller gave a comparable gift of $100 million to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

There are more than 122,000 libraries across the U.S., according to the American Library Association. These institutions and their patrons benefit from donations.