Posted on August 27, 2012

Mandel Foundation Awards $7.5 Million to Cleveland Museum of Art

The Cleveland Museum of Art has announced a $7.5 million gift from the Mandel Foundation in support of an eight-year, $350 million expansion and renovation project.

In recognition of the gift, the museum's armor court, which contains about four hundred pieces of chain mail, swords, daggers, halberds, helmets, and suits of armor, will be renamed the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Armor Court, for the brothers who established the foundation. Jack N. Mandel, the eldest, died in 2011.

The donation has brought the museum's capital campaign to within roughly $100 million of meting its goal, David Franklin, Sarah S. and Alexander M. Cutler director of the Cleveland Museum of Art, told the Cleveland Plain Dealer. The campaign and construction are scheduled to be completed by the end of 2013.

"The Mandel family's commitment to philanthropy in Cleveland is truly remarkable," said Franklin. "This gift represents a significant milestone in their ongoing support of the museum and its renovation and expansion project. Philanthropists such as the Mandel family founded this museum and help make it the world-class institution we have today. We are proud to recognize their generosity in one of the museum's most cherished and revered galleries: the armor court."