Roy Neuberger, the legendary investor and art collector, died at age 107 in New York City on Dec. 24.

As the successful cofounder of the money manager Neuberger Berman, he was able to collect a wide swath of American artists such as Milton Avery, Stuart Davis, Alexander Calder, Jackson Pollock, Georgia O'Keefe and Edward Hopper.

Neuberger began collecting after reading a biography of Vincent Van Gogh. He said his life was changed by the story of how Van Gogh struggled, yet only sold a few paintings in his lifetime. Neuberger became interested in supporting emerging artists.

He then followed a credo of buying what he loved and ultimately gave away much of his collection to public institutions.

Neuberger donated many works to dozens of U.S. museums, including New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, Whitney Museum, Museum of Modern Art, and the Neuberger Museum of Art in Purchase, N.Y.

The National Endowment for the Arts awarded Neuberger a National Medal of Arts in 2007 for his philanthropy.