'Breathtaking' and 'transformational.' Seattle University receives record $300 million art donation

Seattle University has received the largest art donation ever given to a university. So large, in fact, the Jesuit school will have to build a new museum to house the $300 million collection.

The donation, from 88-year-old real estate developer Richard “Dick” Hedreen, includes $25 million seed money to create the Seattle University Museum of Art on the school's Capitol Hill campus.

University President Eduardo Peñalver called the donation “transformational.”

“The collection is remarkable because it spans six centuries of art history,” Peñalver said. “It goes back to the early Renaissance, includes great masters and contemporary art. And it has a significant [amount] of sacred art, which fits especially well with Seattle University’s Jesuit tradition. So, it’s a perfect collection for building a new museum.”

Highlights from the collection include paintings by Jacopo da Pontormo; Jan Lievens; Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun; Luis Egidio Meléndez; Thomas Gainsborough; Willem de Kooning; Robert Rauschenberg; Roy Lichentstein; and Robert Indiana. The collection also features etchings by Lucien Freud, and photography by the likes of Irving Penn and pop art icon Andy Warhol.

Hedreen said the massive donation was a way to honor his wife Betty, a Seattle University graduate who passed away in 2022.

“Betty and I always felt that we were custodians of the artworks we acquired, holding them in trust for a larger purpose,” Hedreen said in a statement. “The Jesuits place a special focus on the arts and humanities, including art history, and that has long been reflected in Seattle University’s Jesuit education and its connections to the Seattle arts community.”

Peñalver said Seattle University hopes to have the new museum up and running in the next five years.

He called the Hedreen collection of more than 200 pieces “breathtaking” but said his favorite painting is a small 14th century work that depicts the three kings visiting Mary and baby Jesus in the manger from Italian master Giovanni Toscani called “Adoration of the Magi.”

“It's an amazing painting that really captures the both the style of that era, and then all the developments that that were shortly to come in things like perspective and in the way that the human body was depicted,” Peñalver said. “So, I love the piece for its subject matter, and it's got some humor in it. But it's just a beautiful painting.”

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While the new collection will be of great value to students, faculty, and staff at Seattle University, Peñalver said it also represents a win for Seattle and the larger community.

“We've seen collections from the city that have been sold out at auction and have left the city over the past few years, and we're really excited for Seattle that the public will be able to enjoy this amazing collection that will stay together and stay in the city,” he said.

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