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| First Person: Money & Meaning |
American Legacy
James and Frances McGlothlin
01/01/2006
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James and Frances McGlothlin recently made a contrarian move by bestowing their
collection of late 19th- and early 20th-century American art on the Virginia
Museum of Fine Arts. The collection comprises 35 paintings, watercolors and
other works by artists such as Mary Cassatt, John Singer Sargent, George Bellows
and Winslow Homer. While recent years have seen many such private collections go
to the auction block—the McGlothlins’ art is valued at $100 million—the
couple not only gifted their works, but also promised financial support for the
collection’s maintenance and a capital campaign for a new wing. The works were
exhibited at the museum in Richmond last year. Selected paintings will be on
display in coming years until the entire collection is transferred to the museum
upon the McGlothlins’ deaths.
 | | ART COLLECTORS James and Frances McGlothlin have bequeathed their American
art collection and continue to give financial support, now valued at well above
$100 million, to the museum. The couple wanted to give their art to a
facility “where it would really be appreciated by the general public.” (2004 Photograph by Annie Leibovitz.) |
When we first met, it was Fran who had a great interest in art. Jim, who
is chairman and CEO of The United Co., a Bristol, Va.-based financial services,
oil and gas conglomerate, had always been in the business world. It seemed art
collecting might be something that we could have in common and enjoy together
into old age. So we went to an auction as a little bit of fun one day, maybe 10
or 12 years ago. We were moved to buy a painting, and the rest is
history.
Fran found a painting there that she loved. Jim bought it as a
Christmas present, and was as intrigued by the bidding and the deal making as he
was by the picture itself. However, after living with the piece, the aesthetics
become more interesting than the bidding. We decided to focus on American art
because we are American; we love our country. We think art portrays its history
as well as anything, so this seems very right for us. Plus, it’s a small field,
so you can be more of a player, more involved than you could if you were to
focus on French Impressionist art or something in which so many people are
involved.
| This is really just our passion. Since we made the gift, it has
made us feel so great, because we have gotten so much wonderful
feedback. |
Like Minds
We get to know the people who collect. It’s a small group,
and that’s part of the fun. We are dealers as well as collectors, so we buy and
sell with other dealers around the country, particularly in New York and with
the auction houses. We couldn’t be such involved players if we weren’t in a
limited field like this one.
Most of the collectors and dealers that we know
don’t have any plan for what’s going to happen to their art when they pass away.
We don’t know why. Even dealers, whose family must know something about the
process, can’t tell you what’s going to happen to their business, and their
business is just those paintings. We had thought about it for some time, and
we’d talked about it with others. Some of them do have paintings they plan to
leave to the Metropolitan [in New York] or the National Gallery or whatever. We
decided we wanted to do something different. We wanted to put it all somewhere
where it would really be appreciated by the general public.
 | | MOONLIGHT, 1907, by Childe Hassam (1859–1935), is from Capturing Beauty:
American Impressionist and Realist Paintings from the McGlothlin Collection
at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. (Photograph courtesy the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.) |
We decided the
Virginia museum is perfect. Fran is a trustee there, and even though we are
Texans now, we are both Virginians by birth. It has a good, high-quality art
collection and our collection dovetails with it really well and enhances it.
They are also building a new wing; it just worked out that this gift, along with
money to support it, as well as money toward construction of the new wing, would
fit in nicely.
The trend in recent years has been toward selling collections
at auctions; certainly the Rita and Daniel Fraad collection was the big sale of
2004. We both feel very strongly that we are incredibly lucky to have the
wherewithal to do what we love, which is collecting this art, and at some point
we feel a real obligation to share it with other people. We have three children
between us, and if we sold it, they would just be getting the money. We think
they’ll be OK financially, so we don’t need to do it. We talked to our kids
about it. They went to the dinner where we made the gift, and we jokingly said,
“You know we are not really giving this, our children are giving it.”
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