When a collector makes a transformative gift to the MFA, Patrons should take notice. Major acquisitions significantly strengthen the ability of MFA curators to tell new and important stories. This benefits not only the current generation of Museum visitors, but future generations—a fact that must offer great satisfaction to any collector or connoisseur who has dedicated time and resources to assembling a collection.

Longtime Museum supporter and collector Wan-go H. C. Weng, who describes the MFA as “his museum,” made one such gift with his recent donation of 130 important Chinese paintings, 31 works of calligraphy, 18 ink rubbings, and 4 textiles to the Art of Asia department. These works include particularly strong examples from the Ming and Qing eras, complementing the MFA’s superlative holdings from the earlier Song and Yuan dynasties. This is not the first significant gift bestowed upon the MFA by Mr. Weng. Over the past decade, he has given 21 works, including Wang Hui’s Qing dynasty scroll painting 10,000 Miles along the Yangzi River, a 53-foot-long masterpiece on view during a single-work exhibition last year that coincided with the collector’s 100th birthday. Keep an eye out for upcoming news about an exhibition of highlights from the Weng Collection that goes on view this fall.

Mr. Weng’s generous gift was not the only transformative addition to the MFA’s holdings in recent months. Last fall, the Museum acquired the Howard Greenberg Collection of Photographs through a major gift from the Phillip Leonian and Edith Rosenbaum Leonian Charitable Trust. Matthew Teitelbaum, Ann and Graham Gund Director, has described Howard Greenberg as a “visionary collector,” and this collection of photographs adds depth and breadth to the Museum’s considerable holdings. The collection includes masterpieces documenting life in Europe and the United States in the 1920s and ’30s, with notable images of the Great Depression as well as original prints used in LIFE magazine. In addition to iconic images from Edward Steichen, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Walker Evans, Dorothea Lange, James Van Der Zee, W. Eugene Smith, and Robert Capa, the gift adds 80 new artists to the Museum’s collection—a collection started in 1924 when Alfred Stieglitz donated 27 photographs to the MFA. In August, the Museum will mount a major exhibition, “Viewpoints: Photographs from the Howard Greenberg Collection,” drawing on this landmark acquisition.