There's Got to Be a Morning After

Apologies to Maureen McGovern for that headline, but over the weekend the businessman/philanthropist Eli Broad made an incredible proposal to save the S.S. Poseidon the floundering L.A. Museum of Contemporary Art. In an op-ed piece in the Los Angeles Times, Broad, who was the founding chairman of MOCA in 1979, said that his Broad Art Foundation "is prepared to make a significant investment in MOCA — $30 million — with the expectation that the museum's board and others join in this effort to solve the institution's financial problems."

First the clear part. This could be a tremendous lifeline. If that much cash finds its way to MOCA, it won't fix the problem of an asleep-at-the-wheel leadership, but it will go a long way towards stabilizing the museum's finances, which will buy some time to deal with its institutional dysfunctions.

Now the less clear parts. For starters, we still don't know just what financial shape the place is in. Last year it had an endowment of $20.7 million, down from around $36 million in 2000. But the Times reports on its Culture Monster arts blog that the endowment "is said to have dwindled to as low as $7 million amid the current world financial crisis". Maybe we'll know more soon from the office of the state attorney general, which has jurisdiction over non-profits, and which sent a letter to MOCA last week requesting information and documents about the museum's finances.

Biggest question of all — the Broad offer appears to be contingent on the willingness of other LA donors to come up with donations of their own. ("I'll step up if you do too," he says. "This is not a one philanthropist town.") How contingent he doesn't say — is this an offer that could be withdrawn if adequate funding doesn't also come in from other sources? — but details are likely to start appearing soon.

And what does Broad mean by calling his own $30 million an "investment"? Last week he announced that he plans to build a museum of his own as part of a new L.A. headquarters for his Broad Art Foundation, which is currently housed in a converted Santa Monica building that has no real exhibition space. As the Times has also asked, as a quid pro quo for his cash, is he hoping to be able to borrow works from the MOCA collection for his new museum or for the traveling shows that his foundation sends out?

Then again, what's that saying about looking a gift horse in the mouth?