Art Institute of Chicago receives $35 million cash gift

CHICAGO (AP) - The Art Institute of Chicago has received a $35 million cash donation from the estate of the widow of a Boston hardware supplier.

The gift from the late Dorothy Draude Edinburg is the largest in the history of art museum.

Edinburg's husband was the late Joseph Edinburg, an executive at Chandler & Farquhar hardware suppliers in Boston.

Edinburg, who died last year at 94, was a collector of prints and drawings of the 15th through 20th centuries and Chinese ceramics from the Tang and Song dynasties. Between 1991 and 2014, she donated more than 1,500 works to the Art Institute.

Art Institute president, Douglas Druick, says the funds are earmarked for acquisitions and specifically in the area of prints and drawings from the Renaissance to 1960, and Asian art.