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GUEST COMMENTARY - It’s now essentially predictable that, after a period of quiet, there will be a cascade of new and very troubling information about LACMA (Los Angeles County Museum of Art) in the press and even from LACMA itself. The past three weeks have been no exception.
We could talk about the recent, astounding revelations within the article published by The New York Times about architect Peter Zumthor’s now public disavowal of the building that once had his name attached to it. “There are no Zumthor details any more” he said even though LACMA’s embattled CEO, Michael Govan, disagreed, “No, no, that’s not true. I would argue that there are many, several, Zumthoresque details” but sharing only two: the handrail on the main staircase and a fire escape door. This comes three years almost to the day after that first revelatory interview in The New Yorker which posited the question, “Will the new LACMA building be Peter Zumthor’s masterpiece or a fiasco?” It appears that, sadly, we’re eventually slouching towards the latter.
We could talk about how we had once, humbly, made another prediction that is becoming true: that LACMA’s “executive architect” Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM), hired to oversee the building’s execution, having a habit of taking over very unique, cutting edge projects and making them their not very original own (see: New York City’s World Trade Center) is slowly and eventually coming true. We were promised, over and over again, something original and iconic.
We could talk about the recent release of LACMA’s audited financial statement - which covers the period between July 1, 2022 to June 30, 2023 - and which reveals, amongst other things, that LACMA still carries a debt load close to three quarters of a billion dollars. It still, for yet another year, doesn’t clearly define LACMA’s public claim that it has an equal amount of gifts and pledges towards this new, now over budget, building.
We could continue to talk about the controversial members of LACMA’s Board of Trustees, this time being one of the more controversial members: Dasha Zhukova. Her name has now been belatedly hyphenated, and misplaced, on the website’s board roster after it was recently revealed that she is, as of February of last year, the 51% owner of her ex-husband’s, Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich, one billion dollar art collection so that he can avoid sanctions after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
We could talk about how our local paper of record, the Los Angeles Times, hasn’t really covered any of the above and coverage on and about LACMA has been scant at best, other than sharing almost verbatim LACMA’s press releases without any apparent verification of what’s fact and, more importantly, what isn’t.
What we should really talk about, however, is arguably LACMA’s now most controversial trustee: H.E. Sheikha Al-Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani who is the sister of the ruling emir of Qatar. This is the country that has vouchsafed six billion dollars of now supposedly refrozen Iranian funds. This is also the same country, let’s not forget, that has had a history of financially backing, including housing, terrorist groups and their leaders like Hamas, ISIS, the Muslim Brotherhood, Al-Qaeda, the Taliban and even the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps. Al-Mayassa, who’s the Chair of Qatar Museums, has created a conflicting role for herself as a LACMA Trustee, with LACMA’s obvious knowledge and approval, by having Qatar Museums collaborate with LACMA.
Why should we talk about her? It’s plainly obvious. After one of the most horrifying acts of unmitigated brutality against a group of civilians, including women and children on October 7 what has followed has been the most virulent acts of antisemitism on American college and university campuses, on our country’s city streets and in public all over the world. Sheika-Al Mayassa’s response? She ordered the projection of the Palestinian flag onto the National Museum of Qatar and shared an image of it with over one million of her followers on Instagram and X. Her followers’ posted comments are truly frightening and absolutely deplorable.
Just a few days ago, there was an urgent appeal by every major museum in Israel to the International Council of Museums (ICoM), of which LACMA is a member, for ICoM to take a principled stance and to call out Hamas as a terrorist organization. ICoM’s eventual response has been tepid and noncommittal at best. LACMA’s has been nonexistent.
When completed - apparently not until the end of 2026 if not longer and which will defy any real, cohesive purpose - this new building will be the third of a trio of new buildings on LACMA’s campus. Each one will bear an individual name of one of three of LACMA’s most generous donors in its history: Broad, Resnick and Geffen. They also all represent the most prominent Jewish philanthropists in America. Additionally, approximately thirty-three percent of LACMA’s Board of Trustees are Jewish and Jews of all philanthropic giving levels in Los Angeles have given tens of millions of dollars to LACMA since its inception.
LACMA, which has been treading in deep and troubling political waters for over the past decade, has a sincere moral and ethical obligation to speak out against antisemitism for its patrons and the general public. This includes the citizens of Los Angeles, especially its half a million Jews - who represent the second largest population in this country - all of whom are, understandably, scared right now beyond belief. This should also include the approximately six million Jews in the United States and the sixteen million Jews in the world…quite a few of whom are direct members of my family and quite a few more are my friends.
LACMA’s majority leadership, which includes the LA County Board of Supervisors, seems to continually forget, but will now - maybe, hopefully, finally - realize that it’s time to not only remember, but to also act upon the fact that is our LACMA, it’s your LACMA it really is time to stand up and help Save LACMA. Because if they can’t, they really need to step aside and let others take charge.
(Rob Hollman is Board Chair of SAVE LACMA www.savelacma.org.)
