5,000 Attend Reopening of Historic S.F. Art Museum

As biplanes buzzed by and a marching band played, dignitaries and art lovers ranging from Pablo Picasso’s relatives to uniformed war veterans gathered Saturday to reopen one of San Francisco’s most beautiful and historic museums.

The California Palace of the Legion of Honor, an art museum designed to honor the 3,600 Californians who died in World War I, reopened after three years of seismic reinforcement and remodeling.

The Veterans Day reopening of the Parisian-style museum fittingly took place on the 71st anniversary of its inauguration and on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month--marking the end of World War I in 1918.

At that precise time, a moment of silence was observed for America’s war veterans and the doors opened wide.

“It means a lot more than just waving flags,” said 97-year-old Bert Maze, the only World War I veteran in attendance. “I get all choked up.”

He and an estimated 5,000 others attended the reopening, many of them waiting in lines that snaked around the front of the museum, from which there is a spectacular view of the rugged California coastline and Golden Gate Bridge.

While the museum and its surrounding scenery have a firm place in San Francisco and world history, the facility is more famous for its part in Alfred Hitchcock’s “Vertigo.” In the opening scenes, Kim Novak wanders through the bronze-trimmed doors to view a portrait of her ancestor.

Those familiar with the Legion were amazed at the changes.

Rodin’s “The Thinker,” which stands in the Palace court, was moved 50 feet forward to make room for a pyramid-shaped glass skylight that overlooks six new special exhibition galleries.

In one of the galleries is a temporary Picasso exhibit highlighted by the recently acquired sculpture “The Orator.”

“It’s quite wonderful,” said Claude Ruiz-Picasso, a son of the famed artist who attended the opening with one of Picasso’s grandsons. “To be able to see the sculptures in natural light is always quite nice. It’s a much more intelligent way of looking at art in San Francisco.”

The Palace was enlarged 42%--35,000 square feet--and underwent a $36.5-million seismic retrofitting. Contractors also built a cafe, a new bookstore and souvenir shop.

In addition, there is a computer archive that allows anyone with a reservation to retrieve information and images of the Palace’s 87,000 paintings, sculptures, decorative arts, tapestries and other objects.

As for the artwork, the European paintings were cleaned up and the bases of the sculptures replaced to make them more secure in an earthquake. A new security system is also in place, allowing for the removal of the red velvet ropes that once kept visitors away from the displays.

Visitors marveled at the Palace’s new look, calling it a work of art.

“It’s absolutely fantastic,” said Alfred Peet of Berkeley. “I was just walking around thinking, ‘I’ll send them a check tomorrow.’ I’ve missed it and now it’s back in my life.”