LACMA AND COLLECTOR BUDI TEK MOVE FORWARD WITH LANDMARK DEAL

Michael Govan, the director of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), has signed an agreement with the Indonesian Chinese collector Budi Tek, the founder of the Yuz Museum in Shanghai, making an unprecedented partnership between the Chinese and US institutions official, Gareth Harris of the Art Newspaper reports.

The deal, which was first announced at a panel discussion at Art Basel Hong Kong in March 2018, involves the creation of a foundation to which Tek will donate 1,500 works of Chinese contemporary art—about 90 percent of his collection. The organization will be jointly managed by a board of trustees comprising six members—three from LACMA and three from the Yuz Museum—and will be based in Hong Kong. The partnership was first proposed by Tek, who is fighting pancreatic cancer, as a way to preserve his legacy.

“We’re laying out a roadmap during our meeting in Hong Kong,” Govan told the Art Newspaper. “This is a complex step-by-step process, which will involve putting the collection into a foundation first, as we’re finding friends and sponsors. The idea is that [Tek’s] collection resides in China at the Yuz Museum; this is for China, just like our collection is for Los Angeles, but the works could be loaned to us—as we are lending works to China.” Tek previously said that he hoped to have the foundation set up by June.