ART

The new Gene Autry Western Heritage Museum in Los Angeles has purchased an 87-piece Western art collection worth an estimated $8.7 million. The collection--on permanent loan since 1967 to the Joslyn Art Museum in Omaha, Neb., contains works by 37 artists, including Frederic Remington, Charles M. Russell, Albert Bierstadt and George Catlin. The Autry museum, named after the cowboy movie actor who now owns the California Angels baseball team, is being built by a charitable trust set up through the estate of the late Ina Mae Autry, Autry’s wife.

The museum is to open in October with 52,000 square feet of exhibit space on 13 acres in Griffith Park. It has a collection of 12,000 items, including Autry’s personal holdings. The Autry museum obtained the collection by a sealed bid to the Enron Art Foundation at Enron Corp. headquarters in Houston.