L.A. Museums' Collections Grow Despite Poor Economy

Roy Hamilton, the Fowler's curator of Asian and Pacific collections, had a similarly happy experience last year when he pursued a tip about a Japanese textile collection in search of a home. Bypassing the usual courtship, he went to see Dr. Jeffrey Krauss of Potomac, Md., and landed 201 intricately dyed and patterned textiles made from the early 19th to the mid-20th century. Unexpected as it was, the marriage was meant to be, Hamilton says, because the museum can accommodate entire collections and make them available for research, as the donor wished.

The Krauss collection and 180 objects donated by a longtime supporter, collector and curator Gloria Gonick, tripled the Fowler's holding of Japanese textiles. Their large gifts and many smaller ones have helped to build a 15,000-piece textile collection known as one of the most comprehensive in the world.

But what about the future?

Museums such as the Fowler, which rely heavily on gifts of art and artifacts, are unlikely to be severely affected by the sagging economy, Hamilton says. But those that struggle to amass acquisition funds may come up short.

At MOCA, where the challenge might seem most daunting, chief curator Paul Schimmel says the museum has "a profound commitment to the collection." Although acquisitions are on hold while the museum is reorganized, he says the collection will grow.

"If the severe downturn continues, you will see the effects next year and the year after," he says. "It will be similar to what happened in the early '90s." But there could be some benefits. "When works of art double or triple in value in a year or two, they tend to end up at auction," he says. "When the market declines, people don't do as much buying and selling. Some of them say, 'Well, OK, it's worth more as a gift.' That affects the area of the market that moves most rapidly and where there has been the greatest speculation, and that's contemporary.