Lucas’s Museum: S.F. Or L.A.?
For nearly a decade, the filmmaker George Lucas has tried to build a museum to house an extensive personal collection that includes 40,000 paintings, illustrations and film-related items. But legal entanglements and other complications have thwarted his efforts. After several false starts, Lucas and his art team say they will decide later this month whether to put the museum in San Francisco or Los Angeles, a strategy that has stirred a California rivalry. The prize is big, and both cities want it badly. “This is the largest civic gift in American history,” LA Mayor Eric Garcetti told The Associated Press. “I think Los Angeles is the natural home for it” — a notion that San Francisco officials enthusiastically contest. The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, as it will be called, promises hundreds of jobs and a high-profile attraction — and it’s essentially free.
