New York art collectors Herbert and Dorothy Vogel decided to contribute 50 works of their contemporary art collection to Harvard University Arts Museums (HUAM), according to an announcement last week from the National Gallery in Washington.

The contribution is part of “The Dorothy and Herbert Vogel Collection: Fifty Works for Fifty States,” an initiative to distribute 2,500 works of contemporary art to 50 selected art institutions throughout the country.

The Vogels’ collection includes works of more than 170 contemporary artists. Among the artists whose works will be sent to HUAM are Michael Goldberg, Edda Renouf, Richard Tuttle, and Stephen Antonakos.

Herbert Vogel, 85, a retired postal worker, and Dorothy Vogel, 73, a retired reference librarian, told The Austin Chronicle, “we bought art we could afford and that would fit into the apartment.”

The couple began collecting art in the 1960s and started lending pieces to HUAM in the early 1970s. The couple’s first contribution was a collection of works by Richard Tuttle.

Ruth Fine, a curator of modern art at the National Gallery, which is assisting the couple in their project, said that “their association with the Fogg goes back to the early years of their life as collectors.”

She added that the “primary reason” for the couple’s gift is their long-standing relationship with Harry Cooper, now at the National Gallery, who had served as the head of HUAM’s modern art department.

Fine described the Vogels’ collection as “daring” and “intelligent,” and deemed it fitting for the Fogg Museum, which she described as “one of the great teaching museums in the world.”

Among the 10 museums that will receive contributions from the Vogels this spring are the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles and the Seattle Art Museum. The National Gallery said that 20 more institutions will receive the collection’s gifts by the end of 2008 and 20 more by the end of 2009.

A HUAM representative did not return requests for comment.