Eli Broad, a self-made billionaire, philanthropist and art collector who built two Fortune 500 companies and used his wealth to mold Los Angeles’ cultural landscape, playing a central role in building such institutions as Walt Disney Concert Hall and the Museum of Contemporary Art before creating his own museum in the heart of the city, has died at age 87 after a lengthy illness.
Active and still looking ahead until late in life, Broad died Friday afternoon at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, according to his spokesperson. A cause was not given.
With a fortune estimated by Forbes at $6.9 billion, the New York native who made California his home more than 50 years ago flourished in the home construction and insurance industries before pouring his wealth into an array of ambitious civic projects, often setting the agenda for what was to come in L.A.
Eli Broad and his wife, Edythe, outside their Brentwood home in 2019.
(Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)
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Eli Broad at a ceremony during the construction of the Broad museum in 2013.
(Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)
Eli Broad is photographed at his home in 2019 in front of Cy Twombly’s “Untitled (Munich/Rome)” (1972), part of Broad’s vast art collection.
(Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)
Broad with Gov. Gray Davis, left, and Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan, center, at the announcement of the 2000 Democratic National Convention being held at Staples Center in L.A.
(Los Angeles Times)
Eli Broad, left, with then-L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who signs a beam to be placed on the top of the Broad museum in 2013.
(Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)
Eli Broad, left, with architect Frank Gehry at a February 2019 groundbreaking ceremony for the Grand, the downtown L.A. mixed-use development designed by Gehry.
(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
Eli Broad at the civic dedication and ribbon-cutting to celebrate the opening of the Broad museum on Sept. 18, 2015.
(Los Angeles Times)
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Eli Broad stands inside his namesake museum in 2015.
(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
Eli Broad looks over a painting by Jorg Immendorff titled, “Nachtmantel,” part of the Eli and Edythe Broad Collection at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
Eli and Edythe Broad are photographed in their Los Angeles home with a Jasper Johns piece.
(Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times )
Eli Broad, at his L.A. home, with Jeff Koons’ “Rabbit.”
(Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times )
Eli Broad with a stainless steel sculpture by David Smith titled “Cubi XXVIII” at Broad’s Los Angeles home.
(Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)
L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti greets Eli Broad, standing alongside Frank Gehry, center, at a ceremony for the Grand Avenue Project on Feb. 11, 2019.
(Los Angeles Times)
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A large dimple along the front of the Broad museum, which its architects called an “oculus,” marks the location of a second-floor lecture hall overlooking Grand Avenue.
(Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times)
The Broad museum, with its honeycomb facade, is shown before its opening in September 2015.
(Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times)
Eli Broad in front of Sean Scully’s painting “Conversation, 1986” in the Broad Foundation offices in February 2009.
(Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)
Eli Broad stands in front of Roy Lichtenstein’s “Purist Still Life.”
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