Art Collection Tagged for S.D.

A collection of 33 major works of California art worth $1.5 million has been promised to the San Diego Museum of Art by Frederick R. Weisman, a prominent Los Angeles collector.

Final agreements are expected to be signed in the next few days, according to Henry Hopkins, director of the Frederick R. Weisman Collection, a foundation.

“While the agreement is not signed yet, it certainly looks very favorable. It appears as though it will happen,” Hopkins said, adding that no money is attached to the gift.

The museum’s board of directors accepted the terms of the gift at a meeting late Tuesday, museum director Steven Brezzo said. Conditions of the gift include a promise that the works will be on view at all times in a special gallery in the Balboa Park museum to be designated as the Frederick R. Weisman Gallery for California Art.

Under the terms of the agreement, the museum would be permitted to occasionally sell works of art from the collection, but any funds derived would be designated for additional purchases of works by contemporary California artists, Brezzo said. Any new acquisitions would become a part of the Weisman collection.

Hopkins expressed cautious optimism about the gift.

“If it transpires, it would be wonderful from my perspective because we feel that San Diego, along with San Francisco and Los Angeles, are the major art centers in California, and the one that doesn’t have a strong representation of California artists is San Diego,” he said. “We hope that this will mean that now all the cities will have strong collections of California art on view at all times.”

All that remains to complete the arrangements is for museum officials and Weisman to sign the contracts, Brezzo said.

Weisman, who was unavailable for comment Tuesday, is widely regarded as one of California’s most prominent collectors of contemporary and modern works of art.

The San Diego gift, which would include paintings and sculptures by 33 artists, including Chuck Arnoldi, Lita Albuquerque, John Baldessari, Billy Al Bengston, Sam Francis, David Hockney, Robert Irwin and Alexis Smith, makes up a third of the foundation’s holdings. Weisman’s total personal and corporate holdings include more than 2,000 artworks with a total estimated value of as much as $60 million.

Weisman, a car importer and real estate magnate, began collecting art in 1952 with his former wife, Marcia, also a prominent Los Angeles collector. Marcia’s brother Norton Simon also is well-known in international art circles for the museum of old masters in Pasadena that bears his name.

Weisman, who is in his 70s, has been looking for a home for his collection since the mid-1980s. His first attempts were to form a museum in his name that would keep the full collection intact. Plans for a Beverly Hills museum were abandoned when the Beverly Hills City Council decided to sell the Greystone Mansion, which would have held the collection, to raise money for schools.

Working with Hopkins, who is a former director of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Weisman continues to collect art for the foundation. He also buys for himself, although the two collections are kept separate.

Negotiations on the San Diego gift have been in progress since early spring, according to Brezzo. Four museums statewide had been considered for the gift, although names of the other museums have not been disclosed.