Belle Linsky

Belle Linsky (1904-1987) was a businesswoman and philanthropist who was a Swingline Inc. executive with her husband, Swingline's president Jack Linsky. In 1982, she donated much of her art collection, valued at $90 million, to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.[1][2]

Belle Linsky
Born1904 
Died1987  (aged 82–83)

Life

Belle Linsky was born in Kiev[3] in 1904[4] and came to the United States as a child.[5] With her husband she owned 19 percent of the stock of the Swingline corporation, based in New York City at the time, which they sold to American Brands Inc. in 1970 for $210 million. She was treasurer of Swingline at the time of the sale and Jack Linsky was inventor, president, and chairman.[6][3]

She lived in Palm Beach, Florida and New York, where much of her art collection was housed.[2][7] She died in New York on Monday, September 28, 1987.[8]

Philanthropy and art collection

In 1965, the Linskys endowed for $1 million a pavilion that has bears their names at the Beth Israel Medical Center in Manhattan.[3][8]

She and her husband, Jack Linsky, started collecting art during The Great Depression.[1] After Mr. Linsky died in 1980, much of the art collection went into The Jack and Belle Linsky Foundation.[1] In 1982, Mrs. Linsky decided to give some to The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, as well as a dozen other American museums. The collection includes more than 1000 objects.[1][9] The bulk of which is housed in the 3,980 square-foot Jack and Belle Linsky Galleries[10][11] at the museum.[8][12]

At one point the Linskys had the one of the largest Fabergé egg collections in America.[13]

References
  1. Glueck, Grace (March 4, 1982). "MET is given $60 million Linsky art collection". The New York Times. Retrieved 2018-07-16.
  2. "Archives Directory for the History of Collecting". research.frick.org.
  3. Goldman, Julia (June 21, 2002). "Staples Of N.Y. Jewish Life". The New York Jewish Week. Retrieved 27 February 2019.
  4. Vincent, Clare; Leopold, Jan Hendrik; Sullivan, Elizabeth (February 2, 2016). European clocks and watches in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, NY: Metropolitan Museum of Art. p. 6. ISBN 9781588395795. Retrieved 27 February 2019.
  5. Reif, Rita (24 June 1984). "Antiques View; Portraits in Porcelain". The New York Times.
  6. "American Brands Announces Plans to Acquire Swingline". The Bridgeport Post. Associated Press. 1970-03-26. p. 44. Retrieved 2019-02-12 – via Newspapers.com.
  7. Eubanks, Joyce Rowland (4 April 1982). "Belle Linsky Donates Fine Art". Palm Beach Daily News. Palm Beach, Florida. p. 15. Retrieved 3 February 2019.
  8. "Belle Linsky, Philanthropist And Art Collector, Dies at 83". The New York Times. October 1, 1987. Retrieved 2018-07-16.
  9. O'Neill, John P., ed. (1984). The Jack and Belle Linsky Collection in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Metropolitan Museum of Art. Retrieved 2018-07-16.
  10. MacArthur, John R. (16 October 2001). The Selling of Free Trade: NAFTA, Washington, and the Subversion of American Democracy. University of California Press. pp. 12–. ISBN 978-0-520-23178-8.
  11. Winship, Frederick A. (June 30, 1984). "Art collected by Horatio Alger-type couple goes on permanent display at Met Museum". UPI. Retrieved 2018-07-16.
  12. Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, N.Y.) (1984). Annual Report of the Trustees. Metropolitan Museum of Art.
  13. Korkki, Phyllis (March 23, 2013). "The Attachment That Still Makes Noise". The New York Times – via NYTimes.com.
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