Downtown Los Angeles is a step closer to getting a new contemporary art museum, as billionaire philanthropist Eli Broad, who is backing the project, sells $150 million in bonds this week, according to The Bond Buyer.
The three-story museum, known as The Broad, is currently under construction in L.A.'s cultural district and is expected to open in early 2013.
It will house 2,000 works from Eli and Edythe Broad's art foundation and private art collection, including works by 200 artists such as Jeff Koons, Jasper Johns, Andy Warhol, Jean Michel Basquiat, Roy Lichtenstein, Cindy Sherman and Joseph Beuys.
The contemporary building itself will cost around $170 million to build; the Broads have committed $2 billion to the museum's construction, art collection, and endowment.
The building, by architecture firm Diller Scofidio + Renfro, is known as "the veil and the vault" for its dual public exhibition space and archival area.
Broad, who founded both SunAmerica Inc. and KB Home, is a major philanthropist whose foundations have assets of over $2 billion. While the foundations' primary focus is eduction, the Broads have also backed several major contemporary art museums, including collections at UCLA and Michigan State University.
The interior lobby
The column-free, sky-lit gallery
