The National Gallery of Art is a national art museum, located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. The museum was established in 1938 by the United States Congress, with funds for construction and a substantial art collection donated by Andrew W. Mellon plus major art works donated by Lessing J. Rosenwald, Italian art contributions from Samuel Henry Kress, and more than 2,000 sculptures, paintings, pieces of decorative art, and porcelains from Joseph E.

Widener. As a result of bequests such as these, the National Gallery today houses one of the finest collections of Western painting and sculpture in the world. Beginning in the 1940s, financier and art collector Andrew W.

Mellon began gathering a collection of old master paintings and sculptures with the intent of providing the country with a national art gallery. Following his death in 1937, Congress in a joint resolution accepted Mellon's collection and building funds (provided through the A. W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust), and approved the construction of a museum on the National Mall.

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