Eli Broad adds a ‘Cracked Egg’ to his Koons pieces

Philanthropist and art collector Eli Broad will soon have a new Jeff Koons piece for his massive contemporary art holdings: His art foundation has purchased Koons’ yet-to-be-fabricated sculpture “Cracked Egg (Red)” for a reported $3.5 million from Gagosian’s West End gallery in London. Gagosian London is currently showing another piece from the series, “Cracked Egg (Blue).”

The Broad Collection already contains more than 15 Koons pieces among its approximately 1,300 works, including “Balloon Dog” (1994-2001), “Inflatable Flower and Bunny (Tall White, Pink Bunny)” (1979) and the recently completed “Tulips” (1995-2003).

Broad, who sits on several museum boards, including Los Angeles’ County Museum of Art and Museum of Contemporary Art, said Wednesday that the foundation had not yet decided where “Cracked Egg (Red)” might be displayed. And that holds true for the entire collection: Broad said “no decision has been made” on what museum might house the holdings, adding that the donation of individual works or groups of works to more than one museum is among the possibilities.