los angeles museums

Most Expensive J.M.W. Turner Painting Finally Goes On Display At The Getty

Filed under: Art

Last July we watched in amazement as a J.M.W. Turner painting, "Modern Rome – Campo Vaccino" sold at auction Sotheby's London for over $45 million, setting a new record for the artist. Six bidders pursued the painting driving the price well above pre-sale expectations. The price beat the old record set in April 2006 at Christie's in New York when an 1841 view of Venice, "Giudecca, La Donna della Salute and San Giorgio," sold for $35.9 million but the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles took home the prize. Now the painting is finally going on display at the Getty but what happened in the interim is also interesting.

The Daily Mail reports that the British government postponed export of the work until last month in order to see if enough money could be raised to keep the painting from leaving the country. "Modern Rome – Campo Vaccino" was painted in 1839 and is his final painting of Rome, a culmination of all of the studies that he made during his two visits to the Italian capital. Before the most recent sale, the painting had only appeared on the open market once in the 171 years since it was painted. It was offered for sale by a descendant of the 5th Earl of Rosebery; the 5th Earl of Rosebery had bought the painting in 1878, while on honeymoon with his wife Hannah Rothschild. The painting was most recently displayed at the National Gallery of Scotland where it was on long-term loan.

Los Angeles museums have a small wealth of J.M.W. Turner works, the Getty now has two painting and two water colors. There are also Turners at the Huntington and the LACMA.

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$13 Million Gift Means New Pavillion For Natural History Museum In Los Angeles

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Charity, Big Givers, Architecture & Design

The Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County will have a dramatic new glass entrance pavilion thanks to a $13 million gift from the Otis Booth Foundation. The gift is the largest made to date by the Los Angeles-based private foundation and the largest private gift dedicated to the Natural History Museum in Exposition Park in its nearly century-long history. The foundation is a legacy of Franklin Otis Booth, Jr. (1923-2008), the great- grandson of General Harrison Gray Otis, founder of the Los Angeles Times.

The Otis Booth Pavilion will feature a 63-foot fin whale specimen that was first exhibited at the museum back in 1944. The 7,000-pound specimen was re-articulated to give the whale the appearance of a whale in the midst of a dive. The light-filled, three-story entrance will be connected to Exposition Boulevard by a pedestrian bridge. It was designed for the museum by CO Architects in association with Cordell Corporation. The Otis Booth Pavilion is scheduled for completion by November 2013, in time for the celebration of the Natural History Museum's 100th anniversary. The museum is in the middle of a six-year renovation that also includes the opening of the new Age of Mammals experience and exhibitions inside the Haaga Family Rotunda, the new Dinosaur Hall and a new exhibition exploring the natural and cultural history of Los Angeles and Southern California. The Museum's $135 million NHM Next Campaign has raised $84 million to date. The Otis Booth Foundation donation was made outside of the current campaign.

[via the LA Times]

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