Pérez Art Museum Miami Gets $10 M. Gift from Kenneth Griffin

Collector Kenneth C. Griffin, founder and CEO of Citadel, has donated $10 million donation to the Pérez Art Museum Miami, which will use the funds to maintain its collection and which will now establish a gallery in his name.

Griffin, who appears regularly on the ARTnews Top 200 Collectors list, has been expanding his presence in Miami since relocating Citadel’s headquarters to South Florida in 2022 from Chicago, where the company was originally founded in the 1990s.

Alongside news of Griffin’s gift, PAMM announced that artist Delcy Morelos had won the museum’s Pérez Prize, an unrestricted $50,000 award funded by Jorge and Darlene Pérez, the institution’s founders. Morelos, who memorably showed last year at the Dia Art Foundation in New York and in 2022 at the Venice Biennale, is known for large-scale installations that make use of scented earth.

PAMM director Franklin Sirmans expressed gratitude for Griffin’s latest donation at a gala this weekend, describing his funding as benefiting “Miami’s civic and philanthropic community.”

During the event, PAMM unveiled the newly named Kenneth C. Griffin Gallery, its largest exhibition space, where yet-to-be-disclosed works from the collection will be displayed.

This latest gift joins Griffin’s record of donations to US museums, including the Art Institute of Chicago, the American Museum of Natural History, and the Museum of Modern Art.

In addition to the funding a range of art institutions, Griffin has been active in financially supporting political causes, too. A recent article in the Nation described Griffin as a key financial player in this election cycle, with contributions totaling $75 million to conservative causes.