Billionaire Berggruen Gives Art Collection to Los Angeles

Billionaire and art collector Nicolas Berggruen is planning on sending several works to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) for long-term loan. Forgoing the idea of building a museum in Berlin, Berggruen is choosing instead to build a collection for LACMA, where he is a trustee, and where the focus is on modern and contemporary German artists such as Martin Kippenberger, Gerhard Richter, and Joseph Beuys.

Nicolas is the son of  the late German-Jewish art dealer and philanthropist Heinz Berggruen.

The initial plan for his collection was to establish a museum in Berlin, in cooperation with the state and the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, of modern and contemporary art. The museum plans are now on hold, though “some works may go to Berlin in addition to LACMA,” he says. Financial difficulties on part of the state were the cause of the plan's postponement.

Berggruen has already loaned Chris Burden's Metropolis II from 2010 to the Broad Contemporary Art Museum, an affiliate space of LACMA. The piece was installed for display on the ground floor of the museum, and will be on loan for at least 10 years.

(Report: Alisa Alexander for ARTFIXdaily)