Occidental Discloses Ownership of $1.4 Million in Artworks : Art: Pieces have been donated to the Hammer Museum. Corporate filing also reveals that an additional $2.3 million has been committed to build the Westwood center.

Occidental Petroleum Corp.--confirming for the first time publicly that it is the owner of $1.4 million worth of art associated with its chairman, Armand Hammer--has disclosed it has donated the works to the museum named for Hammer.

In a routine filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Occidental also disclosed an additional $2.3 million it intends to commit to build the Armand Hammer Museum of Art and Cultural Center in Westwood and support Hammer’s art collection.

The Occidental filing said that the art it now says it owns has “historically” been exhibited as a part of Hammer’s personal art collection.

Occidental previously said it would pay about $95 million to construct and endow the Hammer museum. The investment has resulted in acrimonious shareholder litigation, including a proposed out-of-court settlement in one of three court actions. A hearing in that case is scheduled for Wednesday in Delaware.

Separately, Delaware attorneys for Occidental have obtained a court order sealing a deposition by a key Hammer associate, Hilary Gibson, in which Gibson responded to a series of questions about planned business strategies and fund-raising tactics for the Hammer museum.

In a filing seeking court permission to intervene in the case, The Times has asked Delaware Vice Chancellor Maurice Hartnett to unseal the Gibson deposition and make the document available to news media organizations and the public.

The shareholder lawsuits are being heard in Delaware Chancery Court because Occidental is incorporated in Wilmington, Del. Dissident shareholders have condemned the proposed settlement, in which Occidental would agree to limit expenditures on the museum, as meaningless in terms of its overall effect on how much corporate money can be committed to the project.

Gibson is a key figure in the Hammer museum project and has figured prominently in the court dispute over Occidental’s financing of the museum. Shareholders have challenged the oil company’s participation in the project as a waste of corporate assets undertaken to satisfy Hammer’s personal vanity. Hammer announced plans to build the museum in 1987 after he pulled out of a longstanding commitment to donate his art collection to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

Official financial reports filed with California state charity regulators indicate that Gibson--under another name, Martha Wade Kaufman--has for the last decade drawn consulting fees, ranging from $25,500 to $43,000 a year, from the Armand Hammer Foundation, a charitable organization set up by Hammer and financed by contributions from him, Occidental and related companies and foundations.

In a letter to the court dated March 26, Delaware attorneys for Occidental contended that making Gibson’s deposition public would “adversely affect the fund-raising efforts” of the museum. Occidental’s letter contended that publicity over the litigation and attendant controversy that have enveloped the museum might jeopardize fund-raising plans.

“Carrying out this effort in the glare of publicity generated by the lawsuit will, we are reliably advised, jeopardize its success,” Occidental attorney Rodman Ward wrote the court.

In a court filing last week, The Times argued that information in its possession indicates the deposition “contains no trade secrets or business plans” and that Gibson’s testimony could be of such a nature that “she will be the subject of critical and possibly derisive comment if her fund-raising ideas become known.”

Last year, a joint petition by The Times and the Wall Street Journal resulted in a voluntary agreement by Occidental and Hammer to open thousands of pages of the court record that had been previously sealed.

Frank Ashley, an Occidental Petroleum spokesman, declined to respond to questions about the litigation, the sealing of the Gibson deposition or Occidental’s corporate art properties.

Occidental’s disclosure that it is the owner of record of significant art holdings was included in the firm’s annual 10-K report, a form of annual report required by the SEC of every publicly traded company doing business in the United States. The company’s statement that it owns art that has been donated to the Hammer museum--which is scheduled to open in November--represents the first public acknowledgement that Occidental has art holdings.

In a deposition last year, Hammer disclosed that Occidental had been the source of $5.8 million his foundation paid for a collection of drawings by Leonardo da Vinci. The drawings were announced when they were bought in 1980 as a purchase by the Armand Hammer Foundation.

The source of funds and true ownership of Hammer’s art collection has been a key element in the shareholder dispute with Occidental. Disclosure that Occidental has art holdings that are technically in its own name was contained in one paragraph of the SEC report in which Occidental said it was revising upward its financial commitment to the controversial museum.

The increases included $1 million added to the cost of purchasing a $38 million annuity to endow the museum. The annuity is now to have a $25 million cost to the corporation--$1 million more than originally projected.

The filing also disclosed that Occidental “incurred certain indirect expenses” related to Hammer’s art collections and the museum last year with a total value of $1.3 million. The company declined to provide specifics, but sources familiar with the collection speculated that much of the cost is related to a special security detail composed of off-duty or retired Los Angeles Police Department officers.

The Hammer museum is being built on a site adjoining the Occidental Petroleum building.