An object lesson in the difference between The Hub and The Big Town:

Last month the hardtrundling staff noted art-lover Leonard Lauder’s lecture about the wonderful collection of more than 100,000 postcards he’s donated to Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts.

Yesterday the New York Times front-paged Lauder’s donation of his Cubist painting collection to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

A Billion-Dollar Gift Gives the Met a New Perspective (Cubist)

In one of the most significant gifts in the history of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the philanthropist and cosmetics tycoon Leonard A. Lauder has promised the institution his collection of 78 Cubist paintings, drawings and sculptures.

The trove of signature works, which includes 33 Picassos, 17 Braques, 14 Légers and 14 works by Gris, is valued at more than $1 billion. It puts Mr. Lauder, who for years has been one of the city’s most influential art patrons, in a class with cornerstone contributors to the museum like Michael C. Rockefeller, Walter Annenberg, Henry Osborne Havemeyer and Robert Lehman.

Don’t get the hardlooking staff wrong: Leonard Lauder’s gift to the MFA is absolutely an endorsement of the museum’s status as a major player in the fine art world.

Just not a majorest player, which the Met absolutely is.