Leonard Lauder, Estee Lauder Company’s Billionaire and Arts Supporter, Passes Away at 92
Estée Lauder heir and billionaire art collector Leonard Lauder died at his Upper East Side residence in Manhattan on Saturday, June 14, at the age of 92. The news of his death was announced the following day by his mother’s namesake cosmetics company, of which he and his brother Ronald are the sole inheritors.
Widely known for his family’s fortune and business ventures, Lauder was a prominent arts patron whose contributions left enduring marks on New York City museums and other institutions around the country. Notably, in 2013, he promised his collection of 78 Cubist artworks to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, marking the museum’s largest single philanthropic gift in its history. Later expanded by a dozen pieces, the trove includes paintings, sculptures, and drawings by the likes of Pablo Picasso, Fernand Léger, Juan Gris, and Georges Braque. Along with the gift, Lauder helped finance the new Leonard A. Lauder Research Center for Modern Art, which supports research, publications, and programming connected to the gifted works.
Lauder also served as a trustee and later Chairman Emeritus of the Whitney Museum of American Art, helping the museum acquire hundreds of works of art (760 of which he personally gifted), including Jasper Johns’s “Three Flags’’ (1958), which set the record for the highest price paid for the work of a living artist when it was purchased in 1980. He made the largest donation to the Whitney to date when he gifted the museum $131 million in 2008 through his personal nonprofit, the American Contemporary Art Foundation, Inc.; in 2016, the museum announced that it would name its new home in Chelsea after the billionaire.
While their contributions are celebrated by museum directors, Lauder and his family have drawn criticism from artists and activists for their political affiliations and support of the Israeli government. Lauder was recently singled out in demonstrations for Palestine at the Whitney, where protesters denounced his brother Ronald’s role as president of the World Jewish Congress. A longtime ally to President Donald Trump, Ronald contributed nearly $100,000 to the Republican National Committee for his 2020 election (although the Republican megadonor said he would not help pay for Trump’s 2024 election campaign).
Leonard Lauder also faced scrutiny for evading state taxes, as revealed in a 2021 ProPublica report that found that more than half of the 100 wealthiest individuals have used special trusts to avoid paying the levy.
In addition to his contribution to The Met and the Whitney, Lauder has made gifts to the Portland Museum of Art and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, among other institutions. Works by his wife, the photographer Judy Glickman Lauder, are held in hundreds of public and private collections including the J. Paul Getty Museum and the United States Holocaust Museum.
Lauder is survived by his brother, wife, and two sons, William and Gary.