Fine art of audacious acquisition

THE two sailboats marooned on the front lawn of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston promote more than just the show inside the galleries. They are also showboats for their owner, the swashbuckling multimillionaire William I. Koch.

And therein, critics charge, lies the rub.

“Things I Love: The Many Collections of William I. Koch,” a show of 200-plus objects from Koch’s treasure-trove, has been denounced as a vanity show intended to soften up Koch -- skipper, serial litigant and owner of several priceless paintings coveted by the Boston museum.

Observers say the exhibition is another example of museums kowtowing to rich collectors. (Closer to our own shores, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art has been criticized for ceding power over a new contemporary-arts building to billionaire philanthropist Eli Broad in hopes of attracting more cash donations and perhaps gifts of artwork from his collection.)

Malcolm Rogers, director of the Boston museum, is baffled by the flak. “I’ve got no idea what people are talking about,” he says. Showing work owned by a benefactor or trustee is routine, he says, adding that the show is entirely within official museum guidelines.

“I think what’s different is the scale,” Rogers says, referring to both the sailboats and Koch’s personality. “He is charming but controversial. In truth, there’s nothing [unusual] about the exhibition.”

(Rogers has previously come under attack for allowing the rental of Monets to be shown at the Bellagio Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas.)

At the Boston museum, the price of admission ($15) allows viewing of Koch’s boat models, firearms (among them, the gun that killed Jesse James), empty vintage-wine bottles and, of course, paintings and sculptures, including works by Monet, Renoir, Degas, Cezanne, Matisse, Picasso and Modigliani.

“One of the things I wanted to do was to unveil the personality of a man of great passions,” Rogers says, “to help people understand the psyche of a collector.”

An accomplished sportsman, Koch brought one of the two sailboats displayed on the lawn to victory in the 1992 America’s Cup. But he is equally famous for his family’s legal fights over inherited artwork.

“I think of my art as my children. They’re not as good as my children,” Koch told a gathering at the museum last week, according to the Boston Globe. “Well, maybe they are. They don’t talk back to you, and they don’t say, ‘I hate you.’ But they don’t crawl in bed with you and say, ‘I love you, Daddy,’ either.”

With his collection in the museum, Koch’s home is “virtually empty,” says Rogers. “Is that vanity? I don’t think so. He really wants to help the museum and benefit the people of Boston.”