Simon Drops Offer to Give Prized Artworks to UCLA

Norton Simon, the retired industrialist, has quietly dropped his widely publicized offer to donate his famed art collection to UCLA, it was disclosed Tuesday.

The collection, which includes a large number of Old Masters and has an estimated value in excess of $750 million, is one of the most coveted private collections in the world, and the termination of the proposed gift to UCLA will raise new speculation about its ultimate home.

The acknowledgment came in a one-paragraph statement issued by the Norton Simon Art Foundation after inquiries by The Times. Earlier, UCLA issued an equally brief statement conceding that negotiations between the university and Simon over conditions of the donation had halted at an unspecified date. Each institutions’ statements raised new questions and, in part, contradicted each other. But neither side would discuss the breakdown.

The Simon statement said the decision “not to pursue the negotiations” was made because of “problems, of which the university is well aware, in both the substance of the negotiations and in the manner in which UCLA conducted them.”

No details of the problems were offered, but the Simon statement concluded: “Suffice it to say that we have had no indication from the university that the problems have been resolved in a manner that would warrant a re-opening of the discussions.”

According to the Simon statement, the university was informed of the withdrawal June 3, 1987, only four months after UCLA announced, at a press conference that made headlines around the world, an “agreement in principle” to acquire the artworks.

At that time, UCLA Chancellor Charles Young characterized the negotiations as “very far along” and said the Simon donation would create “the greatest university-based art collection in the world.” He pledged the university’s resources to maintain two sites for the collection: the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena, where the collection is based, and another, smaller facility on the Westwood campus. The collection was to be jointly administered by UCLA, the present board of the museum and the Norton Simon Art Foundation.

Young declined to be interviewed Tuesday, but the UCLA statement implied that the withdrawal was made for reasons other than the negotiations. “We negotiated diligently with Mr. Simon,” the statement said. “Mr. Simon asked for a break in negotiations while he attended to other matters, and said he would get back to us. He has not gotten back to us.”

Asked why the university never announced the dramatic turn of events, a UCLA spokesman said, “We were asked by Mr. Simon’s representative not to make public statements and we honored that request.”

The termination of the Simon-UCLA agreement follows by five months a similar withdrawal of the Armand Hammer art collection from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. In January, Hammer announced that he was withdrawing his offer to donate his Old Master and impressionist paintings to the county museum in order to build a museum of his own in Westwood.

Raise Anxieties

But the Simon affair is likely to raise more anxieties in the art world--and more excitement--than the Hammer decision, for at least two reasons. First, in pulling out of the UCLA deal, Simon has left unresolved the question of his collection’s ultimate destiny; once again, it is apparently up for grabs. Second, the Simon collection is regarded by art experts as in a league of its own. The common price tag of $750 million is only an estimate; many art experts believe it would fetch far more if broken up and put out to auction.

The collection includes Old Masters, impressionist paintings, Asian bronzes and sculpture. It has been praised by art critics and museum curators as reflecting a superb sense of taste and instinct for the best. One art expert once observed that the Simon collection alone could raise a mediocre public museum to the first rank overnight.

There has been speculation for weeks in the Southern California art community that the Simon-UCLA deal was in deep trouble. Those art experts, who have negotiated in the past with Simon, say he is notoriously tough. Virtually none of them will comment publicly, but privately some say they have come to doubt that the former head of Canada Dry, Hunt Foods, McCall Corp. and other companies will ever part with his artworks. At the age of 81, Simon is known to be ailing and operates almost exclusively by telephone from his Beverly Hills home.

‘Don Juan Complex’

“Part of the problem is Norton’s Don Juan complex when it comes to deals,” said one friend of 20 years who spoke on condition of anonymity. “He loves to negotiate but hates the consummation.”

As an example of his irascibility, another acquaintance noted that one of the issues leading to the UCLA breakdown was the presence of a Hertz Rent-A-Car agency next to the site where the university planned to build its on-campus Simon museum. “When Norton found out that the museum would be next to the Hertz agency, and the university couldn’t get rid of it, he hit the ceiling,” the acquaintence said.

Nonetheless, it is virtually certain that other institutions will try to reach an accommodation with Simon. At present, the artworks reside, on a long-term loan, at the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena. Simon has claimed for years that even his wealth is not sufficient to finance the museum in perpetuity and so will be forced to make arrangements with another institution.

In Southern California, most of the speculation falls on the J. Paul Getty Museum, which is about to build a new facility in Brentwood and is financed with one of the richest endowments in the world. A Getty spokesman, however, denied that any negotiations had taken place.

Simon has also threatened in the past to take the collection out of Southern California, a possibility that strikes fear in the hearts of local arts supporters. Museum leaders here say Simon could probably get almost anything he wanted from a number of major museums.

It is also possible that the museum will remain where it is, in Pasadena. Talking about the Simon collection earlier this week, another wealthy collector looking to find a home for his collection said he believes Simon’s private fortune, in fact, could easily finance the operation of the Pasadena facility. He estimated it would require an endowment of about $20 million and said Simon could afford several times that amount.

“With Simon, you never know,” the collector said. “It has been his history to leave people guessing.”