Billionaire Eli Broad Withdraws Massive Art Donation From LA County Museum

The news this week that billionaire art collector Eli Broad has decided not to give any of his 2,000-piece collection to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, where a building bearing his name will open with great fanfare next month, was sort of like hearing that a terminal patient died. You know in your heart it's coming, but expectation does nothing to minimize being nonplused when it does.

Sometimes reality's bluntness does that. Overnight, LACMA became the museum equivalent of Hillary Rodham Clinton. After a buoyant year and a half, the air suddenly went out of the soufflé.

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Comments

[independentrepublicrat]

Does he still get his name on the building or can the building/County withdraw his name? LOL

[JScott]

Eli is the Broad in Kaufman and Broad homes aka
KBHome. Google it for both the good and bad.

Goes to prove you can rely on rich folk to follow thru if their egos are too big.

[NicoleAnonymous]

Perhaps he needs to learn more about Judiasm and being charitable. Judiasm teaches us that we should donate to charity anonymously because some people are only philanthropic for the status that comes along with that. Having your name on a building is narcissistic and in poor taste. Deciding to "undonate" to a museum after you promised just because you want the tax benefits of owning the art and "loaning" it out is selfish and really kind of pathetic.

Although Broad seems to consider himself a shining example for the Jewish community, in reality he is not.

[ThisIsAllJustADream]

give us the goddamned art, you old fart!

[slobone]

"We don't want [the collection] to remain in storage," Broad told one reporter. He told The Times, "We were concerned that if we gave our collection to one or several museums, 90% or so would be in storage all the time."

Well duh, most major museums keep 90% of their artworks in storage. That's the biggest unreported scandal in the museum world. The stuff in MoMA's basement alone could fill a couple of dozen small museums in other parts of the country that are currently art-deprived.

[beachcruiser]

It's refreshing to see a rich white man screwing a rich white organization.

LACMA may technically be a public insitution, but it's run by and for LA's elites.

[mrman]

The good news is BCAM is a beautiful building with old fashioned street lamps on the walkways. The Staff has worked hard and the "opening" will be grand...anyway.
The show must.....