COURTESY CITADEL
MoMA has announced an unrestricted gift of $40 million from Kenneth C. Griffin, the Chicago-based founder and chief executive of Citadel. The donation is one of the single largest in the museum’s history, and to reflect this, one of the museum’s most famous buildings—its black steel and glass East Wing, designed in 1964 by Philip Johnson—will now take Griffin’s name.
Griffin, who appeared on ARTnews’ Top 200 Collectors List this year, has previously donated to museums and other educational institutions in Chicago, and sits on the board of the Whitney Museum, where the lobby in its new Meatpacking District building bears his name.
In a statement, MoMA director Glenn Lowry commented that Griffin’s “commitment to our mission and vision is truly extraordinary,” and Griffin told the New York Times, “It is my hope that visitors, artists and students from around the world will experience all that MoMA has to offer for generations to come.”