George Lucas’ $1 billion museum finds home in L.A.
“Star Wars” creator George Lucas and his team announced Tuesday they have chosen Los Angeles as the home of the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art. A rendering shows the proposed museum, just west and north of the Coliseum in Exposition Park in Los Angeles. LUCAS MUSEUM OF NARRATIVE ART/Associated Press
When a strange complex rises over Los Angeles in the coming years, the silvery structure will be neither moon nor space station but a $1 billion museum devoted to storytelling art. In his dogged quest to construct the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, it seems filmmaker and “Star Wars” creator George Lucas has finally found a home.
The board of directors for the Museum of Narrative Art announced that construction will begin in L.A.’s Exposition Park by the end of 2017. Throughout the previous months, the board had entertained building the museum in either San Francisco or Los Angeles. The City of Angels emerged the victor Tuesday.
For years, Lucas has attempted to find a city for the museum. Lucas and his wife will provide an investment of $1 billion, which they say will include art Lucas owns and a $400 million endowment. And though the museum said it will not cost taxpayer money, the museum board struggled to find a place willing to receive the donation.
Several months after selling Lucasfilm to Disney in 2012 — to the tune of $4 billion — Lucas announced his next big project: a museum, which he first envisioned in San Francisco. There will be “Star Wars” memorabilia, of course, such as the prop mask worn by David Prowse, who played Darth Vader in the original “Star Wars” trilogy. But it will…