Ahmanson Foundation cuts off gifts of art to Lacma

The Ahmanson Foundation, a longtime leading donor to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (Lacma), is suspending gifts of art to the institution out of concern that a redesign of its campus could prevent many works from being exhibited.

William H. Ahmanson, the president of the Los Angeles-based foundation, told The Los Angeles Times that he had repeatedly sought a clarification from the museum on how the permanent collection will be displayed after four Lacma buildings are leveled to make way for a single dramatic one-storey structure designed by the architect Peter Zumthor that will span Wilshire Boulevard. Demolition is expected to begin within weeks.

“We’ve been unable to get a commitment from Michael Govan about presenting the collection as it has been throughout the life of the museum,” Ahmanson told the paper, referring to the museum’s director. He said he feared that many of the European masterworks donated by the foundation would be relegated to storage.

Calls placed to Ahmanson today by The Art Newspaper were not returned. Reached by phone, Govan emphasised that all of the new building would be devoted to the permanent collection. Three other Lacma buildings will be partly devoted to its display as well, resulting a total of 220,000 sq. ft of exhibition overall for the collection, he said, adding, “That’s a lot of space.”

Lacma has signalled that it will host temporary thematic shows drawn from its collection in the new building, scheduled for completion in 2024, and that it will dispense with the separate exhibition spaces for different departments typical of an encyclopaedic art museum.

Since the early 1970s, the Ahmanson Foundation has spent about $130 million on around 100 works of art for Lacma, including masterpieces by such artists as Georges de La Tour, Rembrandt, Bernini, Veronese, Titian and Bellini. Ahmanson told The New York Times that historically “nearly all” of the works were on view at the museum with the exception of 42 French oil sketches that were sensitive to light.

Traditionally curators at Lacma have suggested potential acquisitions to the foundation, but Ahmanson said that the foundation rejected such a request from Lacma as its concerns rose last year. (Govan said that no formal request was made in 2019.)

The $650m Zumthor project has stirred controversy, with some critics contending that it will result in a reduction of gallery space at the museum by as much as 33 percent.

Asked what space will be allotted to the Ahmanson’s gifts, Govan said that would be up to the museum’ curators but that all 11 masterworks pictured in The Los Angeles Times article will undoubtedly be on display, for example. “Curators over time make decisions,” he says. “Art history changes. We all trust our curators and our staff to understand and to also change when necessary with the times.’’

“The museum cares deeply” about the Ahmanson works, he adds. “The museum is immensely grateful. We have always shown especially the masterpieces—I know that it’s an out-of-fashion word, people’s favourites, whatever you want to call them—and there’s no reason to believe that curators will fundamentally change anything on that level.” He added, “We have a beautiful track record.”

Govan indicated that he hoped that the foundation’s gifts would resume. “We are very hopeful that when the misunderstandings subside and the museum emerges, that there will be a lot of confidence,” he said, “and yes, the fervent hope is that they will be excited to continue to support us.”