Like most of us, Victoria Berry gets a lot of junk mail. So when a letter arrived from the National Gallery of Art July 15, the Logan museum curator put the envelope on top of her teetering inbox pile and promptly forgot about it. It wasn't until a second letter, in a Fed Ex envelope, arrived Aug. 4 that Berry, executive director of Utah State University's Nora Eccles Museum of Art, read news that couldn't wait.

The Washington, D.C.-based National Gallery of Art, a federal agency, was offering the Logan museum an extraordinary gift: 50 modern works of art. At no cost whatsoever.

Berry says she sat in a stupor for a long time and then "freaked out." There was an approaching deadline of Sept. 1 to respond to.

Berry had better get moving. Fast.

50 Works for 50 States » Though Berry was frantic, the gift -- unbeknownst to her or anyone else at USU -- had been a long time coming.

The 50 artworks were part of an impressive collection that the National Gallery had begun to acquire, as gifts and purchases, in 1991.

The Vogel Collection, as it's known, comprises more than 4,000 pieces of art, mostly works on paper, as well as paintings, sculptures, photographs and prints.

Ruth Fine, curator for special projects at the National Gallery, said that 2,500 pieces from the collection will be presented, no strings attached, to 50 museums across the country, part of a philanthropic project labeled "50 Works for 50 States."

Philanthropists donate artwork all the time, and even the scale of this impressive-sized gift isn't unprecedented; in the past, the Kress Foundation placed hundreds of Old Master paintings in museums across the country, Fine said.

But what sets apart this collection is the background of the benefactors. The Vogels are an elderly couple of modest means, she a retired librarian and he a retired postal worker, who have spent nearly 50 years judiciously collecting art works and stuffing them into their one-bedroom Manhattan apartment.

"I've never seen anything like it," Fine said of the collection and of Herbert and Dorothy Vogel, ages 85 and 73 respectively.

The Vogels » Dorothy Vogel was the daughter of the owner of a stationery store, while Herbert grew up as the son of a tailor. Each had aspirations to be an artist, but while they took art classes and even had a studio early in their marriage, they quickly decided instead to befriend contemporary New York-based artists and collect art.

Collecting became a passion: The couple's first purchase was a small crashed-car sculpture by John Chamberlain in 1962.

The challenge was that, like a majority of New Yorkers, neither of the couple could drive, so they focused on collecting art that was easily transportable. Anything, Herbert Vogel explained in an interview, that the couple could carry on the city bus or subway.

The two used one of their salaries for daily living and the other for buying art. By the 1990s, Fine said, their apartment was chock-full of priceless work. "It was like a storage unit," Fine said. "Boxes on top of boxes, crates on top of crates."

The Vogels never sold the work they owned, but in 1980s they began loaning pieces to museums across the U.S., always at no cost, and the resulting shows drew the attention of the National Gallery.

By 1991, the Vogels were in discussions with that museum to donate their entire collection. The idea especially appealed to Herbert, who had spent his life as a federal employee, Fine said.

The location of the gallery in the nation's capitol was also appealing to Dorothy Vogel, because it was where the couple had spent their honeymoon nearly half a century before.

Berry's dilemma » There were varying criteria by which the National Gallery and the Vogels chose the 50 museums across the United States to receive 2,500 pieces of their collection.

Some were museums with which the Vogels already had a strong connection, through lending their work. In other cases, the museums the Vogels chose were university-based or a collection that would benefit greatly by an infusion of new work, both criteria that recommended Utah State University.

The Nora Eccles Museum of Art, which opened its doors in 1982, focuses largely on contemporary and modern works by artists of the West, currently housing more than 4,300 objects.

What effect could the addition of 50 works make on the museum? "Significant," Berry said. Her point was echoed by USU President Stan Albrecht, who said the Vogels' gifts would expand the museum's collection of 20th-century artists and the breadth of its art from across the United States by adding artists from the East Coast.

But Berry didn't have the benefit of consulting with Albrecht when the second letter from the National Gallery arrived last August. Albrecht and most of the university's administrators, museum advisory board and arts faculty were away on summer vacation.

Berry found herself largely alone, having to make a decision that seemed like a "no-brainer," she said, but with major financial implications. The gift from the Vogels was free and required only that the university display the work in the next five years. But the care and keeping of 50 additional artworks, Berry said, "is a commitment that comes not without costs" -- including preservation, conservation, and additional gallery and storage space."

USU had endured three years of budget cuts, and a new dean had recently frozen all hiring. Earlier in the year the museum's budget had been significantly cut, and by last summer, Berry found herself without a staffer in charge of acquisitions --precisely the person who would be needed to do the intake of the Vogels' art.

Berry, who has been in her position at USU sinche 2003, takes her responsibilities to the university and the state seriously. "We hold our collection in the public trust," she said. Despite the potential long-term costs, the Vogels' gift struck her as "undeniably sexy," Berry said.

At that point, accepting the gift really became "Vicky's call," Albrecht said.

So Vogel got out her address book and began to contact the museum's most loyal funders. She asked their advice and received from them, as well, the tacit promise of continued support for the museum.

Then she contacted the National Gallery, said yes, and held her breath until her boss returned to campus.

What happens next » For the National Gallery, the care and keeping of the Vogel Collection and the dispersal of the gift are also a financial challenge, involving a massive amount of paperwork, insurance and packaging. Fine has four curatorial assistants who work nearly full time on the project.

Fortunately, the Institute of Museum and Library Services has provided partial funding, and the National Endowment for the Arts has printed an online catalog of the entire Vogel, so individual museums won't need to pay to digitize the works.

USU's gift will arrive sometime in 2009, and the works are expected to be ready for exhibition by spring or early summer. The university is slated to receive works by contemporary artists such as Pat Steir, Charles Clough, Jill Levine and Richard Tuttle.

And as for Dorothy and Henry Vogel, earlier this month they attended a gala reception in D.C., celebrating their momentous gift to the nation. The sprightly couple walked the galleries and met curators like Victoria Berry, who found the couple charming, with sound minds still focused on art.

As evidence, Fine tells the story of the Fogels' apartment, which the couple had emptied out nearly a decade ago, now filled again with artwork they have recently collected.

Ceiling to floor, Fine said, anywhere and everywhere, again.