WSJ does the L.A. art patron scene

The high-end Los Angeles art scene is "an art world with its own unique structure and rules," a Wall Street Journal story says today, backed up by an on-line list (and slide show) of everyone who sits on the boards of directors of the Getty, LACMA, MOCA, the Hammer and the Norton Simon.

Billionaires don't just donate to museums, they build their own. Hollywood agents, media personalities and studio executives pack museum boards, alongside traditional philanthropists. And contemporary art—a market that's fluctuated wildly in recent years—is the only art that really matters to many top collectors and museums.

New art buildings are springing up around the city. Lacma has added about 100,000 square feet of gallery space since 2007 and increased attendance by 50% to 905,000. Nearly 7 miles away is the site of a new museum that art collector Eli Broad is creating to display pieces from his collection of 2,000 artworks. Art dealer Larry Gagosian has doubled the size of his Beverly Hills art gallery and recently bought a midcentury-modern glass house once owned by Gary Cooper for $15.5 million in nearby Holmby Hills, where he will host an art party to coincide with next year's Academy Awards.

That's the house Gagosian recently purchased from David Bohnett, who's on the LACMA board.