Alice Walton

The 1849 painting, a tribute to Hudson River School painter Thomas Cole, had been given to the New York Public Library in 1904 by Julia Bryant, the daughter of Romantic poet and New York newspaper publisher William Cullen Bryant, who is depicted in the painting with Cole.

She has also purchased works by American painters Winslow Homer and Edward Hopper, as well as a notable portrait of George Washington by Charles Willson Peale, in preparation for the opening of Crystal Bridges.

Alice Louise Walton (born October 7, 1949) is an American heiress to the fortune of Walmart as daughter of founder Sam Walton.

She was raised along with her three brothers in Bentonville, Arkansas, and graduated from Bentonville High School in 1966.

She graduated from Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas, with a B.A. in economics.

Early in her career, Walton was an equity analyst and money manager for First Commerce Corporation and headed investment activities at Arvest Bank Group.

She was also a broker for EF Hutton.

Her first museum quality artwork purchase was of two Winslow Homer watercolors in the late 1980s.

In 1988, Walton founded Llama Company, an investment bank, where she was president, chairwoman, and CEO.

In his 1992 autobiography Made in America, Sam Walton remarked that Alice was "the most like me—a maverick—but even more volatile than I am."

Walton and her mother would often paint watercolors on camping trips.

The first piece of art Walton purchased was a print of Picasso's Blue Nude when she was ten years old; it cost her 5 weeks allowance.

Walton was the first person to chair the Northwest Arkansas Council and played a major role in the development of the Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport, which opened in 1998.

At the time, the business and civic leaders of Northwest Arkansas Council found a need for the $109 million regional airport in their corner of the state.

Walton provided $15 million in initial funding for construction, and Llama Company underwrote a $79.5 million bond.

The Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport Authority recognized Walton's contributions to the creation of the airport and named the terminal the Alice L. Walton Terminal Building.

Llama Company closed in 1998.

She was inducted into the Arkansas Aviation Hall of Fame in 2001.

In December 2004, Walton purchased art sold from the collection of Daniel and Rita Fraad at Sotheby's, in New York.

Alice Walton was the 20th-largest individual contributor to 527 committees in the U.S. presidential election 2004, donating US$2.6 million to the conservative Progress for America group.

In 2005, Walton purchased Asher Brown Durand's celebrated painting, Kindred Spirits, in a sealed-bid auction for a purported US$35 million.

In 2009, Walton acquired Norman Rockwell's "Rosie the Riveter" for $4.9 million.

Walton's attempt to quit smoking inspired her to purchase a painting reminiscent of an earlier painting by John Singer Sargent by Alfred Maurer which depicts a full-length woman smoking.

Another painting, by Tom Wesselmann, titled "Smoker #9" depicts a hyper realistic, disembodied hand and mouth smoking a cigarette.

In a 2011 interview, she spoke about acquiring great works by other artists, including Marsden Hartley and Andrew Wyeth, saying that she loved the emotion and spirituality they expressed.

Other artists whose work Walton has purchased include Georgia O'Keeffe, Mark Rothko, Edward Hopper, Kehinde Wiley, and Titus Kaphar.

Walton's interest in art led to the Walton Family Foundation developing the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas.

The architect Moshe Safdie designed the 200,000 square foot museum, which was built on 120 acres of Walton family land.

Crystal Bridges opened in 2011 and has been visited more than 5 million times as of 2021.

It is free to attend.

Walton says her motivation for the museum was to give access to art to people who had never had it.

As of January 2012, Walton had contributed $200,000 to Restore Our Future, the super PAC associated with Mitt Romney's presidential campaign.

In September 2016, she owned over $11 billion in Walmart shares.

As of November 2023, Walton has a net worth of $71 billion, making her the 17th richest person and the second-richest woman in the world according to Bloomberg Billionaires Index, after Françoise Bettencourt Meyers.

Walton was born in Newport, Arkansas.

Walton donated $353,400 to the Hillary Victory Fund, a joint fundraising committee supporting Hillary Clinton and other Democrats, in 2016.

In 2016, Walton donated $225 million among a total $407 million from Walmart heirs to the Walton Family Holdings Trust, which finances the family's philanthropy.

Walton formed the Alice L. Walton Foundation in 2017.

The foundation promotes arts, education, health, and improving economic opportunity.

In 2020, the foundation gave the University of Central Arkansas $3 million in funding for its fine arts program.