Yale Receives Largest Donation To Date

Yale University has received the largest single donation in its history, the University announced last week.

Paul Mellon, a philanthropist who passed away on Feb. 1, has bequeathed $90 million to the university, $75 million of which will go to the Yale Museum of British Art.

In addition to the donation, Mellon, Yale Class of 1929, contributed 130 of his personal paintings to the museum, the Yale Daily News reported on Friday.

"Of course we were thrilled and overwhelmed by Mr. Mellon's generosity. It is extraordinary but completely consistent with his character," Yale President Richard Levin told the Yale Daily News.

Mellon, an avid collector of art who had previously donated an extensive amount of money to the National Art Gallery in Washington, D.C., founded the museum with a 1966 donation, according to the Yale Daily News. Mellon's generous donation carries the condition that the museum will never charge admission.

In the 70 years since his graduation Mellon supported more than a dozen professorships in Yale's Faculty of Arts and Sciences and in the schools of medicine, divinity, and forestry and environmental sciences, the Yale Daily News reported.