Dr Max Greenberg, a respected and dedicated figure in the art world of Johannesburg, was born in Kimberley in 1886. He was educated at Christian Brothers’ College in that city and later received his medical training at Edinburgh University, Scotland. Because of his past association with the Diamond City, Dr Greenberg bequeathed to the citizens of Kimberley fifty outstanding early South African paintings and five sculptures. It is known that he was not only a collector of silverware, glassware, furniture and objet d’art. After his death in 1951, the late Dr Anton Hendricks, then Curator of the Johannesburg Art Gallery and Mrs Doris Algie, representing the citizens of Kimberley, selected from his large collection a representative selection of works by renowned South African artists. At the time of Dr Greenberg’s death, the building of the William Humphreys Art Gallery was merely in the embryonic stage and consequently the collection was displayed in the Kimberley Public Library. Upon completion of the Art Gallery in 1952, the late Mr William Benbow Humphreys, founder of the Gallery, offered the citizens of Kimberley a permanent home for their heritage. The Art Gallery Council has since become the official custodian of the collection. The collection which contains several nationally acclaimed little gems, formed the nucleus of the Gallery’s South African collection. Kimberley is indeed indebted to Dr Max Greenberg for his public-spirited gesture.