A Gallery-Worthy Gift

The famed investor Peter Lynch has gifted twenty-seven paintings and three drawings, worth in excess of $20 million, to Boston College’s McMullen Museum of Art. The works, from the private collection of Lynch ’65 and his late wife, Carolyn, are by renowned artists including Pablo Picasso, Winslow Homer, John Singer Sargent, Mary Cassatt, and Childe Hassam.

“My hope is that this artwork, all of which my wife, Carolyn, and I collected during our fifty years together, will help students to develop a deeper understanding of art and its importance as a form of expression,” said Lynch, the vice chairman of Fidelity Management and Research Company and a BC trustee associate who also received an honorary degree from the University in 1995. “All students definitely can learn from this collection, which includes a diversity of styles of painting, many of which depict the natural beauty of our country from its most celebrated painters.” The donation includes an additional $5 million grant to support the ongoing curation and exhibition of what will be called the Carolyn A. and Peter S. Lynch Collection, making the total gift one of the largest in University history.

“This is a transformational gift,” said Nancy Netzer, the inaugural Robert L. and Judith T. Winston Director of the McMullen Museum, “allowing expansion of our role as a vital educational resource offered free of charge not only to the Boston College community but also to all students and the public, wherever they may be.”

Netzer, a BC professor of art history, said the museum would work in partnership with University faculty and students and with scholars from around the world to initiate new research on the artwork and share new insights and contemporary interpretations with its audiences. “Carolyn and Peter Lynch’s generosity,” she said, “and their focused, discerning collecting over many decades have brightened the future of the McMullen Museum’s offerings to New England and beyond.”