The computer billionaire Michael S. Dell and two executives of his private investment firm have agreed to donate an archive of nearly 200,000 prints from the Magnum photo collective to the University of Texas at Austin, the school announced late on Friday.
The collection, whose value is estimated at about $200 million, had already been in display at the school’s Harry Ransom Center. The donation, made by the families of Mr. Dell, Glenn R. Fuhrman and John C. Phelan, will formally cede ownership of the prints to the university.
The press prints, or high-quality copies of the images meant for newspapers and magazines, had resided at the headquarters of Magnum, the 66-year-old collective founded by Robert Capa, Henri Cartier-Bresson and others.
MSD Capital, which manages Mr. Dell’s money and is led by Mr. Fuhrman and Mr. Phelan, bought the rights to the prints several years ago, after Magnum’s membership chose to sell them to raise money for the group.
“The establishment of the Magnum Photos collection at the Ransom Center gives the work of these photographers new life,†Stephen Enniss, the Ransom Center’s director, said in a statement. “This photographic collection will be an invaluable resource, for decades to come, for students and scholars and all who wish to understand the cultural and historical moment through which we have recently come.â€
