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In addition, the TMA will receive the Kassers’ collection of 250 pre-Columbian artworks on a long-term loan. A new 6,000-square-foot gallery will be built to house the works, along with the impressive collection of Latin American and pre-Columbian art the museum already has.

The donation launches Phase II of TMA’s fundraising efforts — Phase I was completed last year, and the $1.5 million raised resulted in massive renovations to the 43-year-old building. The Kassers’ gift puts the museum almost halfway to its goal of $5.5 million for the second phase.

“This is one of the greatest gifts we could ever ask for,� said Jeremy Mikolajczak, TMA’s chief executive officer. “This sets the pace for where we want to go and where we see ourselves in the future.�

Michael Kasser, president of the ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥-based real estate investment firm Holualoa Corp., said the gift and the long-term loan of his collection made sense.

He has been thinking about what to do with his pieces for several years. “With a collection like this, you have three choices,� he said.

“You can give it to your kids, you can sell it, or you can give it away. I thought of all three. To me, putting it somewhere where hundreds and thousands of people can enjoy it was the best.�

Kasser fell in love with pre-Columbian art when he was a boy and his family, which had fled Hungary after World War II, lived in Mexico while they waited to emigrate to the states. He attended school there.

“Mexicans are very proud of their culture, so early on I was indoctrinated into all the cultures that had been in Mexico for centuries. I became fascinated with all of them, going back to 2000 B.C.�

As an adult, once he started making money, he began to collect.

“Collecting pre-Columbian is not like collecting Picasso,� he says. “You could get a nice piece of pre-Columbian for a couple hundred bucks, so it was a good place to start. Not only is it art, but it’s history. So, little by little, as I made more money, I was able to get better pieces. I’ve been doing it now for over 30 years.�

The quality of the collection, combined with the close to 1,000 pre-Columbian and Latin American pieces already in TMA’s holdings, pushes the museum to big-boy status.

“It’s comparable to many of the other museums with great collections in this area,� Mikolajczak says. “He could have taken it to any major institution in any major city — the idea that he wants to keep it here — you don’t meet many donors like that.�

The pre-Columbian/Latin American art collection will have a dedicated curator, financed by a 2015 gift from the estate of Jeanette H. and Bernard L. Schmidt. That person will be hired early next year, said Mikolajczak.

This is not the first time Kasser has given the museum a big boost.

In 2014, he arranged for TMA’s “The Figure Examined: Masterworks from the Kasser Mochary Art Foundation� exhibit, which featured 120 works from Kasser’s family foundation. On view at the TMA were some of the most important artists of the last century, such as Picasso, Renoir and Degas. The show broke all of the museum’s attendance records. About a dozen pieces remain at the TMA, including Rodin’s massive bronze statue “Adam,� which rises from the ground floor of the museum.

Work on the new gallery, which will be called the Kasser Family Wing, will begin in April of next year, with completion expected by October. Money raised from the second phase of the TMA’s campaign will also finance the renovation of the museum’s education building, the former judicial building which sits just east of TMA’s 4-acre campus.