Donation transforms collection.
When Claudia Einecke became the Frances B. Bunzi Family Curator of European Art at the High Museum in 2018, she could have never dreamed what was on the horizon. The next year, Doris and Shouky Shaheen donated their entire collection of 24 impressionist, post-impressionist and modernist paintings—one of the most significant collections ever to enter a museum of comparable size. She was also stunned to have an opportunity to see the priceless art hanging on the walls of the Shaheens’ Buckhead home.
“It was quite amazing,” she says. “There was a Monet over the sofa, Pissarros in the dining room and a Matisse in the corner. To honor the couple for their generosity, we established the Doris and Shouky Shaheen Gallery in the Stent Family Wing.”
According to Einecke, the Shaheens’ gift transformed the museum’s 19th century art collection and lifted it to a new level, but they didn’t stop there. Since 2018, they’ve donated six additional works, including the museum’s first by Edouard Manet entitled Portrait of Madame Jules Guillemet that went on display recently. The Shaheens’ contribution to the High is just one of the couple’s philanthropic endeavors that include the Doris Shaheen Breast Health Center at Piedmont Hospital and the annual Shouky Shaheen Lecture at the University of Georgia Lamar Dodd School of Art. Doris passed away in 2020.
HIGH MUSEUM OF ART
404-733-4400
high.org
@highmuseumofart
