Eli Broad Art Quotations

Most museums - with all their burdens to pay for exhibitions, administration, and security - really don't have any money really to acquire art, with few exceptions.

Civilizations are not remembered by their business people, their bankers or lawyers. They're remembered by the arts.

Artists rarely do the same thing over and over again. Art is about the new, doing things in a new way.

Unfortunately, the boards of art institutions tend to be populated with well-meaning supporters of the arts who often lack any business background or appetite for imposing appropriate discipline.

People would rather have art or gold instead of paper money.

Contemporary art challenges us.. it broadens our horizons. It asks us to think beyond the limits of conventional wisdom.

To me, money is a means to do good. I reached a point in my life where I had enjoyed tremendous business success that afforded my family everything we could possibly want. My wife and I then decided that we could use our wealth to make a difference. So we created the Broad Foundations to do four things: to improve urban public education, to support innovative scientific and medical research, to foster art appreciation for audiences worldwide and to support civic initiatives in Los Angeles.

There were periods when the art market got overheated, but there is no reason it should appreciate dramatically.

Collectors become obsessive and then addicted. You become addicted to art and you can't live without it.

Art evokes emotion. It doesn't have to be a thing of beauty.

My wife was the first art collector in the family, and I didn't become interested until around 1973. The first important artwork we bought was a Van Gogh drawing of two peasant houses in Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer.

I've become convinced that Los Angeles is going to become the next contemporary art capital - no other city has more contemporary gallery space than Los Angeles. We've come into our own, finally.

It's hard to explain your emotions when you see a work of art.