Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art Receives Impressionist Collection

KANSAS CITY, MO (AP).- The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art is receiving an extensive impressionist collection that includes works by Claude Monet and Vincent Van Gogh, the Kansas City museum announced Friday.

The collection is from Marion and Henry Bloch, founder of Kansas City-based tax preparation company H&R Block Inc. The Blochs’ impressionist collection makes up some of the 400 works that dozens of people are donating to the museum to honor its 75th anniversary and the retirement of longtime Director Marc Wilson, the museum said.

Georges Seurat, French, (1859-1891). "The Channel at Gravelines, Petit Fort-Philippe", 1890. Oil on panel, 6 1/4 x 9 7/8 inches

The Bloch impressionist collection includes 29 works by Monet, Van Gogh, Edouard Manet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Edgar Degas, Pierre Bonnard and Camille Pissarro. Wilson said it’s the largest donation the museum has received.

Henry Bloch is a former chairman of the museum’s board of trustees.

“Many of us feel there is no way to fully express what the Nelson-Atkins and Marc Wilson have meant to Kansas City,” Bloch said in a written statement.

Other donations announced Friday include works of African and American Indian art, photography, sculptures and decorative arts. The museum said the collecting initiative began in 2008.

“It is a gift of breathtaking range and scope that will continue to inspire visitors for the next 75 years,” Wilson said.

The museum will feature 130 of the 400 gifts in a special exhibition from Feb. 13 through April 4.

Wilson has been with the Nelson for 28 years and retires in June. His replacement has not been announced.

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