Why This American Collector Is Donating His $300 Million Art Collection

Six decades ago, Richard and Elizabeth “Betty” Hedreen began their art collection began as many do: by seeking out artworks to decorate their new home. “We started out looking for paintings that reflected the Seattle region, made by artists who were from around here,” Richard explained to Artsy. “We wanted works that would connect our home to the area [such as] William Ivey and Guy Anderson.”

The couple soon found that “the more we looked at art, the more there was for us to see and appreciate,” Richard continued. “Collecting art became a deeply satisfying way for us to expand our horizons, and so the collection grew.”

And grow it did. The Hedreens amassed a collection that is today regarded as one of the most prized and finely curated private art collections in the United States. Valued at $300 million, it consists of more than 200 artworks spanning various mediums—including paintings, pottery, photography, etchings, and sculptures—and time periods, from the 15th century to the present. The list of artists is similarly broad in scope, and includes iconic historical names such as Thomas Gainsborough, Titian, Willem de Kooning, and Lucian Freud through to contemporary artists such as Amy Sherald, Rashid Johnson, and Anna Weyant.

Now, the Hedreen Collection is being gifted to Seattle University along with a further $25 million of seed funding to build the new Seattle University Museum of Art. The donation marks the largest gift of art ever made to a U.S. university, and the largest gift of any kind in the 133-year history of Seattle University.

Richard made the decision to donate the works after Betty passed away in 2022. “Betty was still a student at Seattle University when we met,” he said. “I feel this gift honors her memory while helping Seattle University continue the Jesuit tradition of educating the whole person, which made all the difference in both our lives.”

Seattle roots

The Hedreens have deep roots in Seattle and Washington State. Born in Seattle, Richard attended the University of Washington, where he graduated with a degree in civil engineering in 1957. He went on to found the real estate business R.C. Hedreen Co., and played a pivotal role in developing hotels that became pillars of Seattle’s hospitality industry, including the Crowne Plaza Hotel Seattle, Olive 8, and Seattle Hilton Hotel. Betty, meanwhile, was born in Tacoma, Washington, and her love of the arts grew to be a driving force in her life. She became a founding member of the Contemporary Collectors Forum in 1983 and Seattle Art Museum Supporters (SAMS) in 1985. She also became a member of the Seattle Art Museum board of trustees in 1990, later serving as vice president from 1994 to 1998 and chairing the board’s governance committee in 1997. She was elected as an honorary trustee for life in 2017. Amada Cruz, the former director and CEO of SAMS, regarded Betty as being “integral to the growth and success of the Seattle Art Museum.”

It was in Seattle, too, where Richard’s eye as a collector was shaped. He met art dealer and fellow collector Charlie Cowles, who was then the contemporary curator at the Seattle Art Museum. “Charles Cowles came to Seattle as a curator of contemporary art at the Seattle Art Museum in 1972,” Richard explained. “He shortly thereafter formed the Contemporary Art Council, a group of approximately 30 or 40 individuals including us. We traveled, in the mid-1970s, to New York and to Europe with Charlie. While we traveled, we visited not only contemporary or modern museums, but the great museums in Europe and New York and looked at all forms of art.”

The travels proved to be life-changing, and included more than a few encounters with giants of art history. Richard recalled that the grand oil paintings of Nicolas Poussin that line the walls of the Louvre in Paris and Caravaggio at the Uffizi in Florence proved to be key sparks. “I became increasingly interested in early painting and the changes in technique over time,” Richard said. “It was looking at all these different periods of art; the [art from the 15th through 20th centuries] that caused me to feel very strongly that great art was not limited to contemporary art. I found a lot of pleasure in the quality of Renaissance art.”

This fondness for the period is reflected in a pair of Jacopo Carruci Pontormo paintings from the collection, Portrait of Cosimo I De’Medici (1537) and Portrait of Francesca Capponi as St. Mary Magdalen (1527–28), fine examples of the 16th-century Florentine painter’s reputation as an early exponent of Mannerism.

A collection for the ages

Although the Hedreen Collection has a variety of themes and periods—ranging from contemporary and modern art to 18th- and 19th-century art and Old Masters—Richard points to one common thread throughout. “[From] the Mannerist paintings by Pontormo and the recently acquired Matthew Wong imaginary landscape…[to] Cecily Brown and Amy Sherald paintings…the common element is the skill shown,” he said.

As Richard reflects on the large art collection he and his late wife amassed over the decades, it becomes clear that the collection is an amalgamation of his and his late wife’s individual artistic tastes. Richard shares that the collection has a broad range that developed naturally “as we looked at more art and became more interested in different periods and different mediums.”

Betty was “somewhat fonder of some of the exceptional contemporary works of art in the collection,” he noted. This fondness is mirrored in the collection’s contemporary artworks, such as Rashid Johnson’s Seascape “Jitter Bug” (2022), an oil-on-linen work depicting a repetitive shape pattern. Another example is Sherald’s The Make-Believer (Monet’s Garden) (2016), which illustrates the artist’s ability to explore the diverseness of Black identity through portraiture.

Every work in the Hedreen Collection is marked by its conscientiousness. “I don’t think we ever bought a work of art—whether it was a poster, a photograph, or a painting—when we didn’t feel it was a serious piece of art,” said Richard. “We never thought of ourselves as serious collectors, we simply found works of art that were appealing and added them from time to time to our collection.”

The Hedreens’ hands-on approach was evident in how they sourced the artworks that they purchased and added to their collection. Rather than work with an art advisor, the couple developed “a lot of close friendships with people in the auction houses, galleries, and in some cases with the artists themselves,” said Richard.

A bigger purpose

As the couple grew their collection, there was always a broader intention than to just acquire artworks. “[We] always felt we were the custodians of these great artworks, holding them in trust for a larger purpose,” Richard explained. “Over the last few years, as we helped with projects like the Chapel of Saint Ignatius and the Lee Center for the Arts at Seattle University, it became clear to me that the university represented that larger purpose. Considering how much the university meant to Betty as an alumna, it was an obvious choice.”

Donating the collection as a single body of work also means that it can “represent the larger picture of a culture growing and developing over time,” he noted. Richard called Seattle University an “ideal place to do that, using the collection as the core of a teaching museum that will serve the campus community and all of Seattle.”

The Hedreens’ passion for art can be found in the transformation of Seattle University’s campus. From being the lead donors for the university’s award-winning Chapel of Saint Ignatius, designed by architect Steven Holl, to co-chairing the funding campaign for the university’s Lee Center for the Arts, the Hedreens’ efforts have ensured that art became part of the university’s infrastructure.