L.A. Museums' Collections Grow Despite Poor Economy

The J. Paul Getty Museum expanded its art holdings with 894 acquisitions, including a Roman sarcophagus, an Ethiopian manuscript, paintings by Paul Gauguin and Claude Lorrain, sculptures by Franz Xaver Messerschmidt and photographs by Irving Penn and Carleton Watkins. The Fowler enriched its textile collection with 666 items from Asia, Africa, Eastern Europe and Latin America. The Hammer Museum added 169 pieces to its fledgling contemporary art collection; the Grunwald Center for the Graphic Arts gained 192 works, including donations of 50 contemporary photographs from the David C. and Sarajean Ruttenberg Foundation and about 40 drawings and photos from artist James Welling.

Plans for new American art galleries at the , sparked the acquisition of paintings by Reginald Marsh, John George Brown and Charles Sheeler and sculptures by Harriet Hosmer and William Wetmore Story. But the 146 objects added last year also brought European paintings, sculptures and decorative arts to the Huntington.

The riches reflect the collective work of museum staffs and support groups as well as the generosity of individual philanthropists. But each museum is a special case.

Although the Getty's huge endowment allows it to make multimillion-dollar purchases, the museum also attracts donations of art. Last year, about 500 photographs and three 19th century paintings arrived as gifts from two dozen donors. The Norton Simon Museum makes relatively little effort to expand the collection amassed by its founder, but it still receives gifts. In 2008, a suite of 10 Indian paintings was given to the museum by Southern California collectors Dr. Narendra and Rita Parson.

Windfalls are rare. For every desirable object that slides through the transom or arrives on a silver platter, there are thousands that require considerable sleuthing, politicking, negotiating and fundraising. But every now and then, something wonderful falls out of the blue.

One day last June, curator Wendy Kaplan, head of decorative arts and design at LACMA, had just lamented about a big hole in her department's Arts and Crafts collection when she received an e-mail message with an offer to fix the problem.