Saundra Lane: A Gift to the MFA, Boston
Karen Haas, Lane Senior Curator of Photographs
Dr. Emily Stoehrer, Rita J. Kaplan and Susan B. Kaplan Senior Curator of Jewelry
Saundra B. Lane was a visionary collector and a decades-long supporter of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. This sale reflects Saundra’s legacy as both a collector and a generous philanthropist. Alongside the extraordinary collections that she and her late husband Bill gave to the MFA, Saundra made a special provision for her jewelry collection. During her lifetime, Saundra committed her gemstone jewelry to the MFA with an agreement that the Museum would select key works to remain in the Museum collection, with the remainder sold to establish the Saundra B. Lane Fund for Jewelry. Although the MFA is known as a leader in collecting and displaying jewelry, this will be the Museum’s first named acquisition fund dedicated exclusively to building the jewelry collection. The Museum is honored by Saundra’s foresight and leadership.
As a child growing up in Chelsea and later a student studying at Simmons, Saundra considered the nearby MFA a second home. She took Bill Lane there on their first date in 1962 to show him her favorite works of art, totally unaware at the time that he was already a serious collector of paintings.
“Timing is all,” Saundra Lane frequently remarked. For the Lanes, who together amassed one of the most significant collections of American art, timing was indeed everything. By forging relationships with artists early on, and engaging with MFA curators over many years, the Lanes created a legacy that will share the power of art for generations to come. Together they collected American modernist paintings and drawings by iconic artists including Arthur Dove, Georgia O’Keeffe, Stuart Davis, Charles Sheeler, Marsden Hartley, and many others. They went on to build a historic collection of photography, forging relationships with artists like Sheeler, Imogen Cunningham, and Ansel Adams to build a collection focused on a deep portfolio of these artists. In 1990, they made a historic gift of 90 American modernist paintings and works on paper, transforming the MFA’s collection of 20th-century art.
Even after Bill passed away in 1995, Saundra continued to add to the Lane Collection, developing her own collecting tastes and broadening her acquisitions to include contemporary photographers whose images resonated with the early 20th-century modernist work that she and Bill had acquired together. In 2012, Saundra made her largest gift to the Museum—pledging the entirety of the Lane Collection, which included outright and promised gifts of over 6,000 images, 100 works on paper, 25 paintings, and 128 pieces of jewelry. This gift more than doubled the Museum’s photography holdings, strengthened its representation of American modernism, and ensured that this one-of-a-kind collection would forever benefit the public.
Saundra Lane loved color. Her jewelry collection is a literal rainbow, with a preference for unusual gemstones. She was rarely seen without a few choice pieces, including the three-stone diamond and sapphire ring offered here. Many of these jewels were gifts from Bill Lane as tokens of affection and tangible memories of their many celebrations as a couple. Bill Lane had studied geology at Harvard where he took part in digs in the western U.S. during his youth, so he particularly enjoyed finding and giving beautiful gems to Saundra. You can imagine the way the deep blue sapphires might have reminded them of the California coast where the pair spent so much time in Ansel Adams’s studio; how the opals may have harked back to desert sunsets enjoyed from the roof of Georgia O’Keeffe’s Ghost Ranch; or that the pink topaz brought to mind their beloved 1957 Thunderbird convertible, that Bill had bought new and they proudly owned for decades.
The MFA is deeply grateful for Saundra Lane’s friendship, foresight, and generosity. When the proceeds from this sale establish the Saundra B. Lane Fund for Jewelry, the fund will allow the Museum to acquire a wide range of works by contemporary jewelry artists, visionary designers, famous houses, and small ateliers to its already important holdings. Each new acquisition with the fund will bear Saundra’s name in the credit line, extending her legacy for generations to come. Alongside the endowed curatorship and the Rita J. and Stanley H. Kaplan Family Foundation Jewelry Gallery, this first of its kind acquisition fund will position the MFA to continue as a leader in collecting jewelry, and add to Saundra Lane’s trailblazing legacy.
