Commanders’ limited partner Mitchell Rales gives $116 million to National Gallery of Art

The National Gallery of Art is getting $116 million to loan its art collection across America from the Mitchell P. Rales Family Foundation.

The money is the largest endowment for programming in the D.C. museum’s history and will pay for its Across the Nation art loaning program in perpetuity, museum officials said in a release Tuesday. The gift is also meant to commemorate America’s 250th anniversary this year.

The foundation’s namesake, Mitchell Rales, is part of the ownership group for the NFL’s Washington Commanders. He has been on the national art museum’s Board of Trustees for 20 years and was president of the National Gallery of Art between 2019 and 2024.

The Across the Nation program started last year, with over 900,000 visitors seeing National Gallery pieces on loan.

Ten other participating museums have received the art loans. New museums will be chosen for loans when the next cycle of the program starts in the fall of 2027, museum officials said.

The National Gallery wants to loan its art to 50 museums across all 50 states within the first 10 years of the program’s existence, museum officials said.

The 10 museums currently exhibiting pieces from the National Gallery of Art collection:

• The Anchorage Museum in Alaska.
• The Boise Art Museum in Idaho.
• The Denver Art Museum.
• The Figge Art Museum in Davenport, Iowa.
• The Flint Institute of Arts Museum in Michigan.
• The Mint Museum in Charlotte, North Carolina.
• The Nevada Museum of Art in Reno.
• The New Britain Museum of American Art in Connecticut.
• The Utah Museum of Contemporary Art in Salt Lake City.
• The Whatcom Museum in Bellingham, Washington.