The Bruce Museum in Greenwich recently announced a significant new gift of minerals from the renowned private collection of Robert R. Wiener. The recent donation follows the gift of nearly 100 world-class minerals Wiener pledged to the museum in 2018 and includes a number of exceptional ”” and exceptionally large ”” museum-quality specimens.
Wiener, the chairman of MAXX Properties, a family-owned real estate company based in Harrison, New York, is an honorary trustee of the Bruce Museum. He has also made a $500,000 contribution to the Campaign for the New Bruce, the museum”™s transformative renovation and expansion project.
The minerals will be permanently highlighted along with selections from the Bruce Museum”™s existing collection of gems and minerals in the new Robert R. Wiener Mineral Gallery when the New Bruce opens in 2022.
“Robert Wiener has been collecting minerals for over five decades from sites across the globe, from Peru to Tasmania to Madagascar, and from intricately connected cubes of pyrite, to dazzlingly clear crystals of selenite, to fiery red hexagons of vanadinite,” said Dr. Daniel Ksepka, curator of science.
“The Bruce team is creating a new state-of-the-art gallery to showcase these world treasures, and thanks to Mr. Wiener”™s foresight and generosity, our museum and its soon-to-be Robert R. Wiener Mineral Gallery will be among the nation”™s preeminent destinations for enjoying, and learning from, these scientifically fascinating and aesthetically beautiful objects.”
“My passion is for the people who are creating the New Bruce and their excitement about creating a cultural institution of the highest caliber,” Wiener said. “I hope the minerals will sparkle in children”™s eyes and create an enthusiasm for learning more about geoloy, and all the other wonderful things that will come to them as they did to me by getting into the science of the earth.”
“Words can hardly express my gratitude to Robert Wiener for this amazing donation. This transformational gift will put the Bruce at the forefront in collecting and exhibiting minerals,” said Robert Wolterstorff, The Susan E. Lynch executive director. “These rare and gorgeous specimens exemplify the seemingly endless variety of forms and colors found in the world of minerals.”
To learn more about the new Robert R. Wiener Mineral Gallery, visit newbrucescience.org.
