Hammer Museum
Renaissance-palazzo-style building housing a major art collection amassed by a controversial oil tycoon.
Location
About this audio guide
This guide to the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles follows Armand Hammer, the octogenarian oil tycoon running Occidental Petroleum, from his falling-out with the Los Angeles County Museum of Art over how his art collection would be displayed, to his 1988 decision to build a museum of his own on an old Westwood parking garage next to his company's headquarters. It traces the shareholder lawsuit that followed, accusing him of treating Occidental like his personal wallet, and the judge who eventually stepped in to cap the spending. Listen for the Renaissance-palazzo courtyard he built to hold it all.
This audio guide was created using AI.
Similar places
The Getty Villa
Roman-style seaside villa rebuilt from a mansion buried by Vesuvius, filled with Greek and Roman antiquities.
Norton Simon Museum
Art museum with masterworks by Rembrandt, Degas, and Picasso, set amid sculpture gardens.
The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles
Sunken red sandstone museum with galleries wrapped around a subterranean courtyard.
The Getty
Hilltop art museum campus of travertine pavilions, gardens, and a disputed ancient Greek statue.
Los Angeles County Museum of Art
Sprawling art museum campus centered on a suspended three-hundred-forty-ton granite boulder.
The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens
Library, art museum, and botanical gardens spanning desert, Japanese, and rose collections.