RUMORS PERSIST THAT UCLA MAY ACQUIRE SIMON TROVE

An announcement regarding mounting rumors that UCLA might acquire the fabulous art collections of Norton Simon and his Pasadena museum building is expected soon.

While queries about negotiations drew a firm “no comment” Thursday from a spokesman for UCLA Chancellor Charles Young, a reliable art-world source suggested that talks were indeed under way and that a public announcement might be made “in a day or two.” Simon himself could not be reached for comment.

Simon’s collection is universally regarded as the unrivaled gem of Old Master blue-chip troves amassed in recent decades. His holdings range from East Indian bronzes to European masterworks including such classics as a still life by Francisco Zurburan and a unique group of bronzes by Edgar Degas.

The collections do not aim at historical completeness but are renowned for aesthetic excellence attributed to Simon’s personal connoisseurship although the collector, who turned 80 this month, has been ill in recent years and a less visible presence on the art market.

Art world speculation about the eventual disposition of Simon’s art have ranged from a worst-case scenario in which the collections would be dispersed at auction, crumbling the Southland’s premier repository of Old Master art, to optimistic hopes that the super-rich J. Paul Getty Museum would assume stewardship of the Simon collections. Relationships between the two institutions have been cordial and they have made unusual joint purchases of works of art.

Art watchers were taken aback at the likelihood that dark-horse candidate UCLA would acquire the collections since their astronomical value appears beyond the university’s means.

Longtime Simon watchers also recalled the former industrialist’s long reputation as shrewd negotiator and an equally long history of institutional flirtations that failed to materialize.

Prior to establishing his own museum in 1974, Simon was courted by the County Museum of Art, among many others. In 1981, he negotiated with San Francisco Mayor Dianne Feinstein about moving his Asian collections there.

Simon emerged as a major collector around 1964 when he purchased the inventory of the legendary Duveen Brothers in New York and then went on to make purchases so rare and expensive they helped establish fine art as a headline-making phenomenon.

In 1965, he paid $2.3 million for Rembrandt’s “Titus”; in 1972, more than $3 million for a Raphael Madonna. The Zurburan “Still Life: Lemons Oranges and a Rose” cost $3.5 million. In 1981, his wife, Jennifer Jones, bid $4.2 million for a painting by Dirk Bouts, a Flemish primitive beloved by experts.