Chicago’s dreams for a museum built by George Lucas now belong to a galaxy far, far away. The Star Wars creator announced on 24 June that he is abandoning plans to establish a museum in the Windy City to house his memorabilia and art collection, which includes paintings by Norman Rockwell. Lucas is now looking for a site in California.
The film-maker’s decision comes after a two-year legal fight to win approval for the Chicago museum, dubbed the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art. Friends of the Parks, a local non-profit, first filed their legal case against Chicago officials in 2014, arguing that public land should not be used for the proposed museum.
The mayor of Chicago, Rahm Emanuel, originally planned to give Lucas a 17-acre lakeside plot near the Chicago Bears’ football stadium. The mayor shifted his focus to another site to avoid protracted legal wrangling, but Friends of the Park reportedly said it would challenge both sites. Lucas had pledged more than $740m towards the project.
In a last-ditch attempt to save the museum in May, lawyers representing Chicago City and the Chicago Park District filed a petition for a writ ordering the dismissal of the legal case brought against them by Friends of the Parks. The lawsuit was still ongoing when Lucas made the decision to withdraw his plans from Chicago.
“No one benefits from continuing their seemingly unending litigation to protect a parking lot,” Lucas said. “The actions initiated by Friends of the Parks and their recent attempts to extract concessions from the city have effectively overridden approvals received from numerous democratically elected bodies of government.”
In a joint statement, Juanita Irizarry, the executive director of Friends of the Parks, and Lauren Moltz, the chairman of the board said: “It is unfortunate that the Lucas Museum has made the decision to leave Chicago rather than locate the museum on one of the several alternative sites that are not on Chicago’s lakefront. That would have been the true win-win.”