Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles Relaunches After Recession-Era Rescue
LOS ANGELES, CA (REUTERS).- Brought back from the brink of financial ruin by a philanthropist’s $30 million gift, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles celebrates its turnaround this weekend with the most ambitious exhibition of its own iconic collection.
More than 500 works by the likes of Piet Mondrian, Mark Rothko, Jackson Pollock, Jeff Koons and Jean-Michel Basquiat have been selected from MOCA’s 6,000 works, considered one of the world’s top collections of post-World War II art.
“MOCA’s First Thirty Years” marks the museum’s 30th anniversary — a milestone that might not have happened had Eli Broad not come to the rescue.
Many U.S. museums have fallen on tough times in the worst economic downturn in decades, some forced to sell works to survive.
“We were among the first institutions to be hit very hard and very early and we are among the first to be saved in this process,” said MOCA chief curator Paul Schimmel.
Broad, a renowned modern art collector and philanthropist who created KB Home homebuilders, offered $30 million to get MOCA out of financial straits if others came forward. In just 10 months, an additional $30 million was raised.
“This is the biggest turnaround of any art institution, whether it is performing arts or the visual arts, if you think of all that has happened in the last year,” Broad said Thursday as he admired a 1939 Mondrian, MOCA’s earliest work. read more here…
Here we see Paul Schimmel (love!) and Eli Broad ($$) in the last room of the new exhibition at the downtown location of MOCA standing in front of some very nice Ed Moses paintings, probably talking about what a smashing success they need this exhibition going to be.
I hope it is, and I hope that other museums and institutions take a cue from MOCA and do more exhibitions highlighting the permanent collections. Visiting shows are nice, and can definitely be exciting and a treat, but it is very reassuring and comforting (and pride-inducing) to know that pieces like these reside in your home town, permanently, because an institution you support felt that it was important to acquire said pieces.
![Mark Rothko Number 301 (Red and Blue over Red) 1959
Of course now, I can not remember who I was telling this to, but I was saying the art market was going to turn around. I have a few reasons for this. The prices are falling on minimums at auction, galleries are desperate for sales and people want to invest their money in something a little more solid/reliable than Wall Street. Also, the influx to the market of pieces unseen for generations from people desperate for cash will get interest stirring no matter what among the people who can still afford to buy this Picasso or that Lichtenstein. Apparently I am not the only one who thinks this, I just across this article by Charlie Finch, and I realize we really have the same brain.*
New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo points the way with his $2.4-million civil suit, announced this morning, against Rothko collector J. Ezra Merkin, whose hedge fund is alleged to have knowingly funneled money into the Bernie Madoff Ponzi scheme. Gallerists have been sniffing around Merkin’s Rothkos for awhile now, though the collector has publicly denied any interest in selling [see “Artnet News,” Jan. 8, 2009].
Art dealers should rejoice at the perfect storm on the horizon: cash-rich collectors desperate to invest devalued currency into artworks by the dead and aged, coming face-to-face with a slew of soon-to-be indicted moneybaggers, forced by either the law or necessity to sell their art collections. Like bookies in Vegas, these dealers need only match up both sides of the client equation and collect the vigorish.
I also like to throw in a little Madoff related business in there.
*Mr. Finch probably won’t appreciate this comparison. Too late, already made it.](http://29.media.tumblr.com/6PxqjMt83m0k5zwoW52G5fV7o1_500.jpg)
