ART AS EVERYBODY’S BUSINESS : INVESTOR TAKES HIS TREASURES PUBLIC

Sitting beside original works by Henry Moore, Auguste Renoir and more, multimillionaire George Ablah discussed the art he’s loaning to Century City for an outdoor “sculpture walk.” He spoke not from a spacious office suite or mansion anteroom, however, but from the lush interior of his private jet.

“My wife Virginia and I are great sponsors of the concept of putting art into public areas where people who wouldn’t normally see it, can see it,” said the Wichita, Kan., investor and entrepreneur. “And not just statues of a general on a horse, but pieces like these,” he added, waving toward his airborne art gallery.

Ablah’s Gulf Stream II, docked near the Los Angeles International Airport, never left the ground during this recent interview. But he hopes his art-for-everyone idea will continue to fly. In 1984, Ablah installed 25 Moore bronzes in all five boroughs of New York City. Today, he will unveil a collection of large-scale sculptures he’s lent Los Angeles, installed throughout the Century City Plaza in the vicinity of the ABC Entertainment Center and the twin Century Plaza Towers.

Eight 20th-Century works constitute the loan, though the installation of Henry Moore’s “Large Spindle Piece” will be delayed until Friday. At the moment the monumental sculpture is trapped on a truck that’s caught in a blizzard in the Southwest.

The other figurative and abstract works (on view through Oct. 31) are Moore’s “Seated Woman,” Fernando Botero’s “Little Whore” and “Ballerina,” Francisco Zuniga’s “Rosa on a Chair” and “Woman With Hands on Face,” James Rosati’s “Upright Form V” and Arnaldo Pomodoro’s “Sphera.”

Ablah, 56, has been a self-described “turkey-hunter” for most of his adult life, buying various problematic businesses and real estate properties “that no one else will buy,” “repairing,” then selling or retaining them. The easy-going businessman, most active now in oil and real estate, began collecting art in 1971 after a trip to Europe.

Shortly thereafter, “Virginia and I were shocked to find out that 85% of our society never goes to a museum,” he explained. “That sparked an idea. We felt that art had the tendency to soothe the savage beast inside of us, it softened us--bluntly--and we thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could somehow expose some of that 85% to art?’ ” They envisioned placing parts of their collection where people who might never enter a museum or university art gallery could easily see the works.

“We subsequently purchased a great deal of Henry Moore’s art and started to loan it to cities that would put it in the so-called ‘jungles’ of society,” in parks, public gardens, even zoos. And, he added, Moore “told me himself he wanted his work to be displayed outdoors.”

According to J. Carter Brown, director of the National Gallery in Washington, Ablah owns the “world’s largest private collection of Moore sculptures,” an assembly of over 100 works by the preeminent British artist. Ablah’s total collection, about 170 pieces, also includes works by Brancusi, Giacometti, Remington, Lucchesi, Marini, Arp and others. In 1984, Olympic spectators on their way to the Coliseum passed by Zuniga’s six-foot sculpture “Three Women Walking” at USC, loaned to the school by Ablah.

The Los Angeles Arts Council, a nonprofit arts organization, helped arrange the Century City Plaza display. About 10,000 people a day work, shop or seek entertainment at the plaza, said council executive director Jacqueline Kronberg. Brochures describing the sculptures and their exact locations are now available in nearby stores and businesses, she noted, 24-hour security is provided in the area and three hours of free parking is available at the Century City shopping center.

Today at 10:30 a.m., Mayor Tom Bradley and several Century City officials will attend the unveiling of the “sculpture walk.” Ablah has paid for all installation and transportation costs, and hopes, as does the arts council, that this is the first of many such public displays here.

“This should be looked at as a first step,” Ablah said, admitting that there “would have to be quite a bit more art” for this loan to be “meaningful,” compared to other large art exhibitions.

However, he believes that many will enjoy the eight outdoor masterworks, and screened a documentary aboard his plane about his 1984 New York installation to explain the reason.

In the film, called “Museum Without Walls,” crowds of children, commuters and yuppies on their lunch break curiously contemplate the sculptures placed beneath the trees throughout the city’s boroughs.

“Dat’s cool, you know, everyone’ll be lookin’ at it,” said a young man on the tape, happily gazing at Moore’s “Two Piece Reclining Figure: Points.”

“ That’s why we’re doing it, right there,” responded a satisfied Ablah.