Hollywood art boasts star quality

FINE-ARTS fundraisers often lament the absence of Hollywood people from their donor rolls. But look closely at the list of artworks that the Los Angeles County Museum of Art is about to sell and the tinsel shines through.

Among the 42 works to be auctioned by Sotheby’s on Nov. 2 and 3 -- in the museum’s boldest round of “deaccessions” in years -- the movie connections begin with the marquee artwork: That Modigliani portrait, painted in 1916, was once owned by Zeppo Marx, then found its way to film director William Wyler. Wyler and his wife donated it in 1951.

Then there’s a set of 11 Henry Moore sculptures and maquettes, which came from the estate of Burt Lancaster in 1995; an oil painting by Georges Rouault, from Edward G. Robinson and Gladys Lloyd Robinson in 1955; a Eugene-Louis Boudin seaside scene, from Cary Grant in 1972; a Picasso drawing, from director George Cukor in 1961; and a Degas sketch, from the Wallis Foundation Fund in memory of producer Hal B. Wallis in 1996.

As for the Camille Pissarro oil that’s also on the block, the museum bought it in 1981 from the Leon Cantor Palmer Collection, using money provided by Mr. and Mrs. Jack Benny.