At LACMA, “The Age of Imagination: Japanese Art 1615-1868, From the Price Collection”

“The Age of Imagination: Japanese Art, 1615-1868, From the Price Collection,” a lavish exhibition that runs through Sept. 14 at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, marks the end of a long estrangement between the museum and Joe and Etsuko Price, left.

The couple gave the museum $5 million to help build the Pavilion for Japanese Art in 1983 and promised a large portion of their spectacular collection of Edo-period works to be shown there. The building — an unconventional, lotus-like structure designed by architect Bruce Goff — opened in 1988. But the museum’s relationship with the Prices deteriorated, resulting in their filing a lawsuit that demanded the return of loaned artworks. The lawsuit never went to court, but the rift remained.

Hopes for additional gifts of art from the Prices seemed to be out of the question. But then, in early 2006, Michael Govan became director of the museum. When he heard that a major traveling show of their collection was going to tour Japan and conclude at the Smithsonian Institution’s Arthur M. Sackler Gallery in Washington, D.C., he suggested a Los Angeles “homecoming.” And the healing process began.

The result is a pair of happy collectors and a presentation of 109 meticulously painted screens and scrolls. While at LACMA earlier this month, the Prices posed for a photographer in front of “Red and White Plum Blossoms,” a 17th century screen painted by an unknown Japanese artist.  (Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times)