en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isabella_Stewart_Gardner_Museum_theft
1 correction found
She left the museum with a $3.6 million endowment (equivalent to about $68 million today)
The museum’s own materials and a City of Boston landmark study say Isabella Stewart Gardner left a $1.2 million endowment, not $3.6 million.
Full reasoning
This sentence appears to overstate the size of Isabella Stewart Gardner’s endowment to the museum.
Two credible sources contradict the "$3.6 million endowment" figure:
- The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum’s official Planned Giving page states that, in her will, Gardner "bequeathed $1.2 million to establish an endowment for its future care and support."
- The City of Boston’s Isabella Stewart Gardner landmark study likewise says she died in 1924 "leaving a $1.2 million endowment for the museum."
So the claim that she left the museum with a $3.6 million endowment is inconsistent with both the museum’s own description of its history and a municipal historical study. The correct figure is $1.2 million.
2 sources
- Planned Giving | Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
In her will, she left the Museum in trust "for the education and enjoyment of the public forever" and bequeathed $1.2 million to establish an endowment for its future care and support.
- Isabella Stewart Gardner Study Report | City of Boston
In 1919 Isabella Gardner suffered the first of a series of strokes and died on July 17, 1924, leaving a $1.2 million endowment for the museum.