Richard Manoogian, Masco leader and American art collector, dies at 90
Richard Manoogian, an American art collector who spent more than five decades at Masco Corp, died on 25 September 2026. He was 90.
Masco Corporation, the company based in Livonia where he served as chairman emeritus, announced his passing. Chairman emeritus is an honorary title kept after stepping down as chair. The company trades on the New York Stock Exchange in New York under the ticker symbol MAS, according to that company notice. Masco Corporation
The date and age are set out in the most recent accounts. Reporting in Detroit on 27 September gave 25 September as the date of death. Arts coverage on 28 September also gave his age as 90. The company's own notice went out on 25 September. The Detroit News ARTnews
Those Detroit reports described Manoogian as a businessman and philanthropist. The first word points to his long working life at Masco. The second points to giving to public causes. More than five decades at one company is rare in any industry. It means a career measured in generations of staff.
His working life ran alongside a public role in museums. He served as chairman emeritus of the Detroit Institute of Arts in Detroit. That is the same honorary pattern: a former chair who keeps a formal link to the organisation. It does not mean day-to-day control.
With his wife Jane Manoogian, he owned a collection of American paintings. A collection in this sense is a group of works built over years and held together. The museum refers to these holdings as the Manoogian collection. Detroit Institute of Arts
For a reader new to this world, the two roles are different. A collector buys and holds works privately. A museum chair helps govern the institution that keeps and shows works publicly. One is private. One is public.
One transfer to public ownership is already on the record. In 1994 Richard A. Manoogian gifted Sketch of a Three-Way Plug to the Detroit Institute of Arts. A gift, in museum language, means outright transfer, not a loan. The work remains listed in the museum's online collection. Detroit Institute of Arts
The notices therefore record two linked histories. One is a company career in Livonia. The other is a collector and museum chair in Detroit. Both are carried under the same name and the same age, 90.
