In Europe, where the leading art museums are primarily funded by governments, museum leaders often look with envy at American philanthropy. Exhausted and dispirited by having to go before committees and politicians, cap in hand, begging for modest budget increases or funding for basic maintenance, they look to the activities of someone like Broad, and think: How brilliant to have this rich and charismatic guy putting up the money for a brand-new building! How marvelous that he loves art and has promised to donate his incredible art collection! How wonderful, above all, for MOCA or LACMA or the Broad not to have to be beholden to penny-pitching bureaucrats and cynical, populist politics, as museums in other countries are.

Source: Washington Post May 02, 2021 20:48 UTC