Iris Cantor, a prominent philanthropist and art collector who helped assemble one of the world’s largest private collections of works by Auguste Rodin, died at 95 at her home in Palm Beach, Florida. Alongside her husband, financier B. Gerald Cantor, she built a vast collection of some 750 Rodin sculptures and sketches, donating hundreds of them to museums internationally through the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation.

After her husband’s death in 1996, Mrs. Cantor led the foundation in distributing a fortune estimated at 500 million dollars, supporting medical and educational institutions as well as the visual and performing arts. Major beneficiaries included the Brooklyn Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Stanford University, the Musée Rodin in Paris, and other leading institutions. Several museum galleries and public spaces bear her name in recognition of her generosity.

Motivated in part by the loss of her sister to breast cancer, Mrs. Cantor also funded major health initiatives, establishing breast imaging and women’s health centers in Los Angeles and New York, as well as a men’s health center. Awarded the National Medal of Arts in 1995 with her husband, she championed the belief that museums play an essential role in deepening public understanding of art, culture, and human creativity.