Noted philanthropist and Duke University alumnus Raymond Nasher has given the school $7.5 million for a new art museum to be named in his honor.

The gift will fund half the cost of the 50,000-square-foot Nasher Museum of Art. Construction of the new facility on a site at Duke's West Campus is expected to start in 2000. The new museum will replace an existing art museum on the school's East Campus.

Nasher is a 1943 graduate of Duke and a trustee emeritus. The Dallas resident is chairman of both Comerica Bank-Texas and the Nasher Co. He is also recognized as having one of the most extensive private sculpture collections in the world.

Nasher was named one of the country's top philanthropists by Fortune magazine this year after giving away at least $50 million to charitable causes in 1997.