Klaus Perls; donated Picassos to N.Y. museum
NEW YORK - Klaus G. Perls, who sold art for more than 60 years at the Perls Galleries and donated an important collection of African royal art from Benin and modern works by Picasso and Modigliani valued at more than $60 million to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, died Monday in Mount Kisco, N.Y. He was 96 and lived in Armonk, N.Y.
His death was confirmed by his daughter, Katherine of Cambridge, Mass.
For six decades, Mr. Perls ran the Perls Galleries with his wife, Amelia, better known as Dolly, who died in 2002.
The couple dealt primarily in modern works from the School of Paris, but also represented Alexander Calder beginning in 1954. In the 1970s Mr. Perls developed an interest in art from Benin and built an important collection.
In 1991 the Perlses gave 153 pieces of African royal art from Benin, which are in the Michael C. Rockefeller Wing of the Met. Those included bronze figures, elephant tusks carved with royal figures, musical instruments, decorative masks, and jewelry.
In 1996 they gave the Met 13 works by Picasso, Modigliani, Braque, Leger, Soutine, and Pascin. That gift was one of the largest ever received by the Met's department of 20th-century art and greatly helped round out the museum's collection.
"Cubism has been one of our great gaps," Philippe de Montebello, the Met's director, said at the time. "Now we have three masterpieces."
Two were from 1910, Picasso's "Nude in an Armchair" and Braque's oval "Candlestick and Playing Cards on a Table," and the third was Picasso's "Still Life With Pipes" from 1912.
In a marked departure from the practice of many donors, Mr. Perls placed no restrictions on how the works be exhibited.
"I don't like the idea of museums being forced to hang things a certain way," he said. "I think it's pretentious. The Met has a fine collection already and if these pieces help and in some way upgrade it, that's all I want."
In 1940 he married Amelia Blumenthal, and she became a partner in the gallery. In addition to their daughter, Mr. Perls leaves three grandchildren and one great-grandchild. His son, Nick, died in 1987.
