Gifts & Bequests

American Friends Musée d’Orsay was established in 2009, to create wide support for the Orsay and Orangerie museums, including facilitating gifts and bequests of works of art and cash donations from United States taxpayers. Should you like to learn more about bequests or gifts of art please contact us at info@aforsay.org.

AFMO Planned Giving: Connoisseur Society

AFMO is pleased to honor our American Friends who have included AFMO in their estate plans.

Planned gifts include bequests, gifts of works of art* and other special gifts noted in a donor’s will or trust.

In addition to supporting the Orsay and Orangerie Museums, planned gifts may provide donors and their family with significant tax benefits.

A planned gift designated to AFMO is a commitment to the future of our beloved museums as well as future generations of American visitors. In recognition of your generosity and commitment, we welcome you to AFMO’s Connoisseur Society.

*Gifts of works of art are subject to acceptance by the Musée d’Orsay’s Acquisitions Committee.

Connoisseur Society

Members of the Connoisseur Society ensure the future of AFMO and its mission to support the important work of both the Orsay and Orangerie Museums.

In recognition of this lasting commitment, benefits of the Connoisseur Society include:

– Invitations to special programs in the U.S. and in Paris
– Priority access to the Orsay and Orangerie Museums
– Two Patron Pass tours per year offering private, after-hours visits with the Orsay and Orangerie Museums curators.
– Recognition on AFMO website and related publications, with your permission
– AFMO and Orsay and Orangerie Museums news

For more information about making a planned gift to AFMO and joining the Connoisseur Society,
please contact Bradley Ferrarini at: bferrarini@aforsay.org or +1 212-755-7400.

Maurice Denis, Amour, 1892-1899

In 2020, the AFMO received the Amour album, a complete suite of 13 lithographs in colors by Maurice Denis (1870-1943) as a gift from an American collector couple.

As a member of Les Nabis, Maurice Denis (1870-1943) shared the group’s fascination with surface ornament and interiors, apparent in the Amour album, his chef d’oeuvre of printmaking.

AFMO will first loan the artwork for a 5 years period, and ultimately, give full ownership to the museum.

Ernest Laurent, Portrait of Mrs. Bing, 1903

In 2020, AFMO received the painting Portrait of Mrs. Bing by Ernest Laurent (1859-1929) as a gift from an American collector couple.

The painting depicts the wife of the renowned art dealer Siegfried Bing, publisher of Le Japon artistique & founder of Maison L’Art Nouveau, 1895.

Ernest Joseph Laurent (1859 – 1929) was a French painter and printmaker whose influences were his instructor Ernest Hébert and his friend George Seurat. Inheriting the impressionist technique and influenced by symbolism in its most intimate form, Ernest Laurent paid particular attention to women, whose fragility he associated with flowers and the mysteries of the inner life. His deep religious devotion runs through most of his works.

AFMO will first loan the artwork for a 5 years period, and ultimately, give full ownership to the museum.

Neil Levine Architectural Drawing Collection

In 2013, AFMO received a major gift of art by Harvard Professor Neil Levine who donated his entire collection of 374 architectural drawings. Destined to enrich the musée d’Orsay’s drawing collection,

AFMO will first loan the collection for a 5 years period, and ultimately, give full ownership to the museum.

Neil Levine is one of the world’s leading architectural historians. While living in Paris as a student Mr. Levine purchased many original architectural drawings by early French architects, drawings which Alice Thomine, Curator of Architecture at the musée d’Orsay, has studied and used in exhibitions.

Fables of La Fontaine, illustrated by Gustave Doré

In 2012, Bernard Duhaime, Corporate Treasurer of the American Friends of the Musée d’Orsay, made a gift to AFMO of a book, Fables of La Fontaine, illustrated by 19th century French artist Gustave Doré.

Doré created 100 paintings and a few sculptures a few of which are in the Orsay collection, but he is most known for his production of over 200 illustrated books.

Gustave Doré (1832-1883) is one of the luminaries of French nineteenth-century illustration. The book, destined for the Orsay library, is a first edition of Fables of La Fontaine, illustrated by Doré, and published by Hachette et Cie, Paris, in 1868. It is an example one of the artist’s volumes published at mid-century, as part of a series dedicated to illustrating the world’s classic literature. It includes a portrait of the 17th century Jean de La Fontaine (1621-1695) and 84 full-page illustrations; 248 finely engraved and fully decorative head and tailpiece pictorial designs throughout. Dominique Lobstein, director of the Orsay Library, welcomed the addition to the collection, especially as the museum is planning an exhibition on Gustave Doré in 2014.

Individual Donors

We warmly thank our donors for their generous support:

Judy Angelo Cowen Chartitable Lead Unit Trust

The Bachmann Strauss Family Fund

Andrew Black

Candice Chevaillier in honor of Kay Dickson-Farman

Edgar M. Cullman Jr.

H.S.H. Prince Pierre d’Arenberg in the memory of Count de Ribes

Bruce Dunlevie

Margaret and Rick Evans

Thomas and Carole Fenton

Catherine Graham

Michael & Mercedes Hoffman

Ryan Inouye

John McCarter

Elisa Nuyten

Fredric Roberts

Jennifer Schlegel in honor of Harlan G. Schlegel Memorial Fund

Fred Seegal

Wendy L. Stevens & Jeffrey Stevens

Jennifer Sullivan

Bette L. Yancey