Access Is What Counts

Christopher Knight’s heart is obviously in the right place when he bemoans the fact that the UCLA/Armand Hammer Museum, as the result of a recent auction, allowed a Leonardo da Vinci manuscript to slip “from the public realm into private hands,” which happen to be those of billionaire Bill Gates (“The Hammer Falls on the Public’s Trust,” Calendar, Nov. 15). Knight’s memorable phrasing of this development--” ’We’ had owned it, now ‘he’ owns it”--depicts an undeniably accurate reality, but he seems to be overly pessimistic in assuming that this is inherently a bad thing.

The standards by which stewardship of great art ought to be evaluated have nothing to do with whether it is owned by the public or by a private entity. They have everything to do with how the art is used. For instance, there are thousands of artworks in storage in public museums all across this nation that are rarely, if ever, on public view due to space limitations. Some of these objects would arguably serve the public better if they belonged to enlightened private collectors who periodically had school groups or interested citizens out to their house to study and savor them.

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What kind of a Leonardo collector will Bill Gates turn out to be? The first signs are very encouraging: He has agreed to lend the manuscript to the Milan-based bank that had bid against him in the hopes of returning the document to the artist’s native Italy.

Some other things Gates could do to help the public reap the vast amounts of wisdom and beauty that reside in the manuscript include the following:

* Organize a long-term national tour in which the manuscript is displayed in specially constructed art-viewing pavilions in inner-city neighborhoods. This would bring one of Western civilization’s crowning accomplishments to those neglected citizens most in need of the edification that it can provide.

* Produce television documentaries and children’s programs, including those that feature computerized animations of some of the 300 drawings in the manuscript.

* Produce educational packets on Leonardo, the Renaissance and art history in general for elementary and secondary schools.

* Hire an army of art history graduate students and teachers who, like an art world Peace Corps, would spread the gospel of Leonardo-esque principles of beauty and knowledge through lectures, articles and conferences.

Taken together, these endeavors, which could easily be augmented by the Getty Trust’s vast public education programs, could turn Leonardo into a “hip” figure adored by all levels of the populace. If done correctly, Gates could trigger a national craze--”Leonardomania.”

The Renaissance, of which Leonardo was such a towering figure, came about in the 14th Century in Europe as the result of a reawakened interest in the glories and culture of ancient Greece. Gates could launch a new renaissance, a Neo-Renaissance, by reawakening interest in Leonardo and his peers.

Goodness knows he has the wealth and technical proficiency to pull off something on this grand a scale. If this modern-day Medici has the will to give it a try, he would prove beyond a doubt that a private citizen who owns an art masterpiece can do just as much to help society as any publicly run museum.