THE HAMMER COLLECTION

I don’t blame Armand Hammer for one minute for not leaving his valuable art pieces in the hands of a museum staff whose judgments in matters of art are weak and very shortsighted. The present director of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and his staff have committed the resources and space of a publicly owned and supported facility to trashy, no-class, gimmicky junk. If I were Hammer, I would be horrified to have my elegant Rubens hanging next to a beat-up old Plymouth filled with beer bottles. Or my prize Van Gogh exhibited next to a neon “art” piece. What do these people at the museum expect?

MACKFERGUSON

Encino