Hasta La Ideas

Like with the Guardian deciding to investigate Prince Charles‘ architectural meddlings after his most recent battles made such a stir, the same is now happening to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art‘s Michael Govan. Following his high-profile cutting of the museum’s weekend film program and then the sudden influx of donations to keep it afloat, the LA Times has decided to look into just how much of a cut Govan gets from their shrinking endowments. Turns out he’s doing pretty well for himself, between nearly $1 million in salary and additional benefits like rent-free housing and car allowances. This is certainly nothing unheard of, as we reported the other day on museum head’s salaries (at larger institutions, that cool million is about the standard), but art critic Christopher Knight has a bone to pick with one particular in his paper’s breakdown of Govan’s perks: that the director can be paid $36,000 per year to live in his home in New York City, or $1,000 per night, which he has done. Knight’s criticism isn’t over the fee so much as asking why Govan should be spending more than a full month across the country, away from his museum. “The time invested in another city is what seems inexplicably steep.”

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