LA COLLECTORS DONATE $25 MILLION TO LACMA

The collectors Eric and Susan Smidt have pledged $25 million to LACMA’s current fundraising campaign centered around its anticipated 368,000-square-foot building designed by architect Peter Zumthor, according to Jeffrey Fleishman of the LA Times. The museum is seeking to raise at least $650 million for the new building, and this promised donation brings the museum closer to the halfway mark of reaching its goal.

LACMA director Michael Govan said of the pledge: “It takes gifts like this to get to that point of confidence so that others will invest.” For his part, Smidt—a LACMA board member since 2006—praised Govan’s leadership at the institution, saying, “Until Michael came along, Los Angeles really didn’t have a public museum that was commensurate with a great city of the world. Today, we do.”