Noted art collectors Thea Westreich Wagner and Ethan Wagner have promised over 800 works of art to two museums.

One of the lucky repositories named in the gift is the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City; nearly 500 works by about 70 American artists will enter its collection.

Another 300 or so works by 27 European and international artists will be gifted to the Centre Pompidou in Paris.

The range of artworks represented by the donated collection spans from the 1950s to present, and has been amassed by the collectors over the last two decades. 

The couple said they chose the Whitney and the Centre Pompidou for their donation because they knew the gift would make an impact at each museum.

The extensive collection particularly emphasizes work from after the 1970s and will strengthen the Whitney’s holdings of artists like Christopher Wool, Richard Prince, Jeff Koons, Robert Gober and Cady Noland.  The Whitney is scheduled to move come 2015 to the Meatpacking district of Manhattan, at which time it will have far more exhibition space for the permanent collection. 

In an earlier donation to the Whitney, Ms. Westreich Wagner and Mr. Wagner gave a major work by Cady Noland, “Patty Hearst,” and an important bench sculpture by Jenny Holzer. 

The promised donation includes a considerable number of the works produced by younger artists over the last 20 years, including Matthew Brannon, Jutta Koether, Robert Melee, and Rirkrit Tiravanija.  A large number of photographic works are also included, among them works by Robert Adams, Diane Arbus and Lee Friedlander.