New York University is getting up to $200 million to create a new institute offering a multidisciplinary approach to studying the ancient world, the school said Tuesday.

The gift from the Leon Levy Foundation is one of the largest in NYU's history, school President John Sexton said in a telephone interview.

The Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, expected to welcome its first doctor students in late 2008, will cover Central and East Asia along with Europe and the Mediterranean. The multidisciplinary approach will encourage students to cross boundaries between fields including art history, geography, economics and sociology.

Leon Levy, who died in 2003, was a longtime collector of ancient art and a vice chairman of NYU's Institute of Fine Arts.