Deal Likely For Broad Museum Downtown

Andy Warhol's 'Small Torn Campbell's Soup Can,' Possibly Worth $12 Million, Is In Broad's Collection.

A deal has likely been struck for Eli Broad's much-sought museum to be located at the very Grand Avenue project the billionaire has been touting for years, according to the Beverly Hills Courier. The deal would mean Beverly Hills and Santa Monica are out of the running and might have been used as leverage for Broad to get concessions downtown.

According to the paper, "Terms call for the museum to lease 82,000 square feet of the project's 101,000 square feet slated for retail and transform it into a museum that will house his extensive art collection for $1 per year for 99 years ... In return, officials extended his deadline to begin construction to Feb. 15, 2013 with four years to complete the museum."

A longtime downtown revivalist, Broad is the co-chairman of the project's board of directors. The Bunker Hill museum would help the city's center become even more of an art destination, with the Museum of Contemporary Art as a neighbor. The museum would house Broad's 2,000 piece art collection, which includes works by Andy Warhol and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.

Both the cities of Beverly Hills and Santa Monica offered him space at $1 a year in a bid to get the museum in their towns.