WASHINGTON Banking heir Paul Mellon, who collected and then gave away some of the greatest art of this century, has died at his home in northern Virginia. He was 91. Mellon's death on Monday in Upperville, Virginia, was announced by the National Gallery of Art in Washington, one of the prime beneficiaries of his artistic largesse. An avid horseman who appreciated a sleek thoroughbred as much as a Van Gogh or a Manet, Mellon led a long life of English-inspired gentility.

He never had to work for a living, but contributed millions of dollars to worthy causes. Whether you consider it a blessing or a burden, the inheritance is there, he once said. I don't feel it is any great quality of mine when I've always had money. Mellon's longest association was with the National Gallery of Art, which was founded in 1941 by his father, Pittsburgh banker and industrialist Andrew Mellon. Paul Mellon served as president of the National Gallery from 1963 to 1979 and from his private collection gave more than 700 works to the institution.

While president, he directed the construction of the museum's east building. His leadership and generosity established the National Gallery of Art in the first rank of the world's museums, National Gallery of Art Director Earl A. Oowell III said in a statement. Modest and kind, he was one of the greatest philanthropists of our time and a gentleman in every sense.

His love of English art led him to establish the British Art Center a $12.5 million, Louis Kahn-designed building at his Alma Mater, Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, comprising a library, classroom and picture gallery. From 1977 to 1989, he gave the center more than 1,200 paintings, 20,000 prints and drawings and 20,000 books. (Reuter)