Eli Broad and LACMA set up foundation to run museum’s new wing

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) and billionaire philanthropist Eli Broad are establishing a not-for-profit foundation to be named the Broad Contemporary Art Museum at LACMA. Its primary function will be the operation of the museum’s future wing for post-war art, to be designed by Italian architect Renzo Piano, and stocked with works from Mr Broad’s own collection, from LACMA’s, as well as with new acquisitions funded by a $10 million endowment. Mr Broad pledged $60 million for the project in June last year, after plans for a $300-million expansion by Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas had been shelved. Full details of the foundation will be finalised this month. Speaking to The Art Newspaper, Mr Broad, a LACMA trustee since 1995, said the board’s “members will be the museum’s director, the president, and someone else, probably a curator from LACMA, and myself, my wife, and my curator.” The new wing will eventually be run by LACMA. “As the years go by, and, after Eli’s death, the built institution will be taken over by LACMA completely,” says museum director Andrea Rich.