$100 million-plus for Huntington will be largest cash gift in institution's history

The suspense is over. Now that the late Frances Brody’s other heirs have received their shares of her fortune, the Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens has a much clearer idea of its own windfall from the L.A. art patron’s estate: a gift expected to easily exceed $100 million.

This represents by far the largest cash gift in the history of the Huntington, which was previously $21 million from Charles and Nancy Munger in 2002. It could even surpass the original endowment created when railroad magnate Henry E. Huntington died in 1927, which is roughly $107 million if adjusted for inflation.

“A number of museums have received significant gifts when you value the art and cash donations together,” says Steven S. Koblik, president of the Huntington. “But as a pure cash gift, this has very few equivalents -- except for the founding gifts that create institutions.”

Tim Seiler, one of the directors at the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University, agrees. "It's an extraordinary gift, especially for the cultural sector. A $100 million gift more typically goes to a school or university, and it's often a naming gift."

The few comparables tend to come from New York. In 2005, David Rockefeller made a $100-million pledge to the Museum of Modern Art, which ranks as its largest-ever cash gift. In 2008, Leonard Lauder's art foundation gave $131 million to the Whitney Museum of American Art, also its largest.

Brody died in November 2009 at age 93, leaving behind a wealth of artwork — including Giacometti bronzes and Matisse paintings — that she had acquired with her husband, Sidney, a real-estate developer who had died more than two decades earlier. The value of this art directly affected the size of her gift to the Huntington, where she was a board member for 20 years.

This October, the institution received $15 million in cash intended by Brody to improve the botanical gardens, one of her most passionate concerns as a board member. That amount, Koblik says, was specified in her trust instrument and was not in doubt.

The mystery, rather, was how much money the Huntington would receive for also being named the estate’s sole “residual beneficiary” — the heir who is paid after all others should the estate have extra money left over. That’s when the art figured in. When the art world witnessed Christie's sell several of Brody’s masterpieces in May, led by Picasso’s “Nude, Green Leaves and Bust” for $106.5 million (which set a record as the most expensive work of art ever sold at auction), Koblik was watching with particular interest.

“It was an amazing moment,” he says. “When the Christie’s sale of the artwork proved so successful, we knew that would change the nature of our gift.” In effect, the auction created a surplus of $80 million after the other estate payouts, an amount that hit the Huntington’s bank account last week.

Brody estate trustee Robert Shuwarger says the Huntington’s final gift will consist of proceeds from selling the remaining property, including Brody’s A. Quincy Jones house in Holmby Hills. The listing price of the house, which has been on the market since May, has dropped from $24.95 million to $21 million.

“There’s also some miscellaneous property — some silver, porcelain, antiquities, things of that nature — that will be going up for sale at Christie’s,” Shuwarger says. He anticipates that most of those sales will be completed within six months.

Per Brody’s wishes, the full Huntington gift will benefit the botanical gardens, which cover 120 acres of the vast property in San Marino. According to James Folsom, director of the gardens, high-priority projects include “improving and modernizing” a water irrigation system that dates to the early 20th century and creating a “potager” or kitchen garden to complement the existing herb garden. Folsom says that these were pet projects of Brody, who loved her garden at home and, though known for her high style, was not too glamorous to get into a truck with him to drive around and shop for plants at nurseries.

Koblik adds that using the Brody money for botanical purposes frees up existing funds to address other needs, like “making staff salaries more competitive.” This does not, however, mean “quick raises,” he adds, noting the importance of resisting the natural urge “to get overexcited and spend money quickly to do everything we haven’t been able to do.”

Rather, he plans to treat the windfall “like an endowment,” to be invested in a diversified portfolio. (The Huntington’s actual endowment is about $240 million.) The plan is to spend only 5% of the value of the Brody funds over a three-year running average.

And, yes, Koblik says, this legacy-building gift more than compensates for not receiving Brody’s now-famous Picasso. “Right from the beginning of our relationship, Francie said to me, 'You’re not getting the art.' It took the discussion off the table,” he says.

“It was clear to all of us who spent time with Francie that she wanted to make a fiscal difference at the Huntington — she understood the power of this kind of gift.” 

-- Jori Finkel

twitter.com/jorifinkel

Photo: Frances' Brody's home, which was designed in 1950 by A. Quincy Jones. Credit: Kate Carr Photography

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Comments

[bill gates]

i wonder if they'll stop charging admission now. it used to be free, and it was great to be able to just wander into the gardens / library off the street, about 10? years ago they started charging and that ruined it.

[Dennis]

Maybe they can lower the admission price, or stop charging altogether.

[Sean Meredith]

yeah, lower the admission please.

[william]

I agree..stop charging admission...the Huntington is off limit to so many because of the ridiculous charge for admission..Huntington himself would be disappointed that his grounds and library are off limits to so many

[photo]

Maybe the Huntington can be open more than 4 hours a day now.

[James]

I concur with the other comments. Instead of “making staff salaries more competitive”, please think of the patrons who would like to visit the museum and also try to make admission "more competitive" which usually means free or very low admission.

This is wonderful news for such a great Southern California cultural landmark.

[Zach]

I love the Huntington but I can't afford to go there more than once a year when admission is $20 and they close at 4:30. Pretty ridiculous.

[John Peterson]

Check their website, but I think they are free once a month.

[Donald Frazell]

Hope the halve it, gotta charge some kinda copayment, or you really dont want to be there and would attract those who disrespect it. But $20 is too much for many, we only go once a year, as the Arboreteum, Descanso, and South Bay Garden beckon also.

But how about coming through where so many have failed to do their duty to art/ Put a fraction of that to preserve and expand Nuestro Pueblo(watts towers), the greatest work of art created in LA, ignored by Getty's Pacific Standard Time institutional backslapping extravaganza.

[A.]

I agree with the others. Lose the admission!

[Phillip]

I'm glad they charge so much for admission it keeps the undesirables at bay.

[Rob]

I'm glad they got this gift, don't think the founder left them that much for them to last 100+ years, which is why im sure they have to charge admission.

I know there is a Free day they offer which is very nice of them to do.

[Christopher Knight]

Donald Frazell is incorrect. The Getty's project is "Pacific Standard Time: Art in L.A. 1945–1980." Rodia began building "Nuestro Pueblo...," a.k.a Watts Towers, in the 1920s.

[Donald Frazell]

Uh, no, you and they are not only incorrect, but just plain wrong. He started it in 1921, but as he built the entire complex of fountains, baths, sculptures, gazebo, and laticed towers with no help or machinery, he worked until 1955 when he deeded the land to a neighbor and left at 75 years old. I think that fits well within the time frame.
It is a travesty to art, inexcusable, and a sin against creativity for the sake of institutional power.
That about covers it.

art collegia delenda est

[Donald Frazell]

By the way, is that Picasso actually hanging one a sterile, cold,painted brick wall? OMG!. LA rich folk are so tacky, LMAO! Nice wood floor, the rest more like a dentist office, even lock the puny tree behind plexiglass.
Imperial Clothing.
ACDE!

[Andrew Shaddock]

Maybe now the Huntington can find the funds to establish a shuttle to the Gold Line, so that locals and visitors without a car can more easily reach this wonderful destination.

Seems to me that given the admission price, it would not take many incremental patrons to cover the cost of a shuttle.

[Jason J McCabe]

Perhaps they can now make admittance reasonably priced so average citizens can come. Another step in the right direction would be significant drop in the price of the food you have no choice but to buy, as they don't allow any 'out-side' food into the garden for picnicking, as the Getty does. Right now the place is just another tourist trap.

[Robert Harper]

I agree with the early comments. I would often bring out of towners to the afternoon tea. We ended up spending money anyway of course. It's just so wonderful for families or students, visitors etc. to have had such a place with NO admission.
I don't think there would be a fuss with a reasonable parking fee per auto.
It's the most wonderful cactus garden and helped me understand cacti's beauty and variety. The grownds are gorgeous. The archives has a Shakespeare First Folio to boot!
Welcome the people in, and the place will prosper for a long time.

[Photo]

It is unfortunate that the director is unwilling to consider lowering admission or increase the hours in the day. The museum is only open from 12-4:30, because the city council mandates that. The hours do not make it enough time to enjoy the museum at a leisurely pace.I am sure the people around the Huntington do not want more middle class people driving around in their neighborhoods.

I believe San Marino is the only city in LA that charges outsiders admission to a public park, Lacy Park, on the weekends. San Mario receives government money to maintain the park. This sends a message we do not want you here.

Many of my friends who are students do not want to pay the price for tickets. They do not even offer a college student discount rate. Every museum in the world does that. The Metropolitan Museum in NYC has a suggested donation.
Pay as you can. Most people pay the regular admission, because they feel they should. It would be nice if he could make a weekend a free day, because then us working folks can actually attend. The Huntington is beautiful place it should be more accessible to all. Maybe another free day. The Huntington is becoming more and more elitist.

Let then eat cake. The director should be saying instead.

[hb]

Wonderful that it will support the gardens, which really need the help.