Billionaire Eli Broad Says His $140M LA Museum Will Be Free
LOS ANGELES (CBS/AP) — For years Eli Broad has said he wants to make his vast collection of contemporary art accessible to the largest number of people possible.
What better way to do that, the billionaire philanthropist said Tuesday, than to make admission free to the $140 million museum he's building in downtown Los Angeles.
Eli Broad: Free Admission To New Downtown Museum
"We want to share this art without the broadest possible public we can here in Los Angeles, and frankly throughout the world," Eli Broad said.
When it opens next year, Broad said during a hard-hat tour of the half-completed building, people will be able to walk in and view more than 2,000 pieces of art, including works by Andy Warhol, Ed Ruscha and scores of others without paying a cent.
The three-story, block-long structure on Grand Ave. next to Walt Disney Concert Hall is planned as a work of art of itself.
"In just a short time, 'The Broad' will be something that rolls off our lips, the same way that The Hammer, The Huntington and The Getty do," said L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti. "But yet this is in the geographic heart of Los Angeles. Footsteps from where this town was first founded, we come back to our history to find its future."
When completed, it will be covered by a glistening, porous shell that will even allow passers-by to see some of the works inside from the street.
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