Safeco to Donate Art

Fellow appraiser Denny Levy sent me an article from the Seattle Times on insurance giant Safeco who plans on donating 840 pieces of art, including many artists from the Great Northwest to museums in Washington state.  The value of the art is worth $3.5 million and will go to a consortium of seven museums in Washington. The Museum group is called the the Washington Art Consortium, and the art museums include the Seattle Art Museum, Tacoma Art Museum and the University of Washington's Henry Art Gallery.

The article states

This single donation more than doubles the size of the consortium's holdings and gives it a strong survey of Northwest artists' works over the past three decades.

The consortium plans to display a portion of the collection at an exhibition space in South Lake Union in April. Some of the art also will be divided among the member museums, though the core of the collection will be kept together.

For Safeco, a key reason for donating was simple. The insurance company — a longtime local institution — had been purchased by Liberty Mutual Group in 2008, leading some to wonder about Safeco's viability and whether its history of local philanthropy would continue.

"We want the community to know we're alive and well," said Safeco President Mike Hughes. Indeed, he said, Liberty Mutual has encouraged the company to keep up its community giving, which Hughes characterizes as being comparable to previous years.

Rare gift

It's rare for a corporation to just give away its art — and especially so many pieces at once.

To read the full Seattle Times article, click HERE.