Hammer Will Build Own Museum for Art Collection

Industrialist Armand Hammer, breaking a 17-year-old promise to give his $250-million art collection to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, announced Thursday that he plans to build his own museum in Westwood.

Hammer, 89, revealed his plans at a press conference at the site of his proposed $30-million museum--the Kirkeby Building on Wilshire Boulevard, headquarters of Hammer’s Occidental Petroleum Corp.

Pulling a blue drape off a pedestal, Hammer unveiled a model for the Armand Hammer Museum of Art and Cultural Center, a two-story, 79,000-square-foot building designed by New York architect Edward Larrabee Barnes.

The museum will feature an interior courtyard and five levels of underground parking, Barnes said. The first floor will contain a study center, library, 250-seat auditorium, offices and a book shop, while the second floor will be devoted to the display of art.

The museum, bordered by Wilshire Boulevard, Westwood Boulevard, Lindbrook Drive and Glendon Avenue, will replace a service station and the existing parking structure for the Kirkeby Building.

“It has become impossible for the County Museum of Art to do justice to my three collections,” Hammer said in explaining his change of heart. “When I announced my intent (to give these works to the museum) I had no idea the extent to which these collections would grow.”

Hammer owns about 60 Old Master and Impressionist paintings, 10,000 works by French satirist Honore Daumier and a Leonardo da Vinci manuscript called the “Codex Hammer.”

“I am very disappointed,” said Daniel N. Belin, president of the county museum’s board of trustees. “I believe that this is a breach of moral obligation to the museum and the people of Los Angeles. I do hope he will reconsider.”

Belin said the loss was a particularly pointed blow because the museum has based some decisions “to purchase or not to purchase Old Master paintings on the expectation” of receiving Hammer’s collection.

County Museum Director Earl A. Powell called Hammer’s assessment of the museum’s space “strangely erroneous.”

Conversations Told

“We have had a constant dialogue with him and his staff over the years” concerning plans to house his collections on the third floor of the Frances and Armand Hammer Wing, he said. “It’s a fallacy that there is not enough space.”

Hammer’s decision follows a trend of private collectors who establish their own museums instead of donating their collections to existing institutions.

Frederick Weisman, Edward Broida and Eli Broad are all considering building their own museums in Los Angeles, and Norton Simon has been negotiating with UCLA to have a separate museum for his cache erected on or near the Westwood campus.

Weisman, who serves on the board at the County Museum of Art, said, “I can see where a collector would want the hand of their organization or foundation to direct the destiny of their art and not have it be just one of a group of other artworks.”

But, Weisman added, “If you make a commitment, you should live up to what you’ve done.”

The director of the recently opened Menil Collection in Houston, Walter Hopps, said, “There are about 12 public institutions in New York City where one can see art. Los Angeles is . . . such a dynamic city that I see no reason why it can’t equal or exceed New York City” in its number of museums.

“I’m amazed (at Hammer’s decision),” said John Walsh, director of the J. Paul Getty Museum. “It seems to me that the (county) museum is the logical place for it. They have the space and they have the big audience.”

Joined by Yaroslavsky

Los Angeles City Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky, who joined Hammer at the press conference, hailed the news as “the most significant announcement related to this community in a quarter of a century.”

He said the museum would undergo “rigorous review” and “adhere to all provisions” of Westwood’s master plan, adding that the museum is not expected to add to the major traffic problems that plague the area. He said the museum would not be open during the peak rush hours in the early morning.

Yaroslavsky, who has been a longtime opponent of Hammer’s efforts to drill for oil in the Pacific Palisades, also ruled out that the museum will be used as leverage to gain his support for the coastal project. “One has absolutely nothing to do with the other,” he said.

County Supervisor Ed Edelman, whose district includes the County Museum of Art, said he hopes that Hammer will change his mind about building his own museum.

“We will attempt to keep the door open for such a collection to be housed in our county museum. I want to find out why he chose not to make his collection available to the county museum,” he said.

Hammer first announced in 1971 his intention to bequeath about 60 paintings, then valued at around $10 million, to the museum. “All the paintings that I own or that are held by my foundation will come to the museum upon my death,” Hammer told The Times then.

“I very much doubt that I could become disenchanted with our museum during my lifetime,” he said then. “I consider my bequest to it (the museum) to be firm through the instructions I have left in my will to my heirs and to the trustees of my foundation.”

Promise Repeated

He has repeated his intention in public pronouncements, private assurances and in his autobiography, “Hammer.”

In 1980, Hammer and the museum drew up a formal agreement outlining his intent to bequeath his collections.

According to a source close to the museum who requested anonymity, the agreement began to break down last summer when Hammer requested changes that the museum considered non-negotiable.

Hammer wanted to have his own curator for his collection who would report to the Hammer Foundation and not to the museum director. He requested the return of paintings that he had previously given to the museum, asking to make them subject to a new agreement, and he asked that other donors’ names be removed from galleries in the Hammer wing, the source said.

When the museum said it could not meet these demands, Hammer decided to retract his promised gift, the source said.

In a Jan. 8 letter to the museum, Hammer made no reference to the alleged demands but stated that the County Museum of Art lacked sufficient space to “allow a coherent full display of my collections” and that he had decided to create his own museum.

Continued Financial Support

He also said he would continue to support the county museum “at least at previous annual contribution levels of $25,000.”

Hammer gathered his first collection in the 1920s in Russia. Since the 1960s he has often been in the news for paying record prices at auction for Old Master paintings and other art treasures. In 1976 he bought Rembrandt’s “Juno,” considered the crown jewel of the collection, for $3.25 million. He paid $5.28 million in 1980 for Leonardo da Vinci’s “Codex Leicester,” later renaming the 36-page collections of notes and drawings “Codex Hammer.”

When Hammer first displayed his collection at the Smithsonian Institution in 1970, the Washington Post criticized the quality, but Hammer subsequently retained Walker to upgrade it and his efforts have met with critical approval.

Times staff writers Ted Vollmer, Victor Merina and Zan Dubin contributed to this story.