SAN FRANCISCO, CA.- On May 14th, the new San Francisco Museum of Modern Art opened to the public featuring an expansive new addition displaying 260 of the 1,100 pieces of postwar and contemporary artwork from the family of Doris and the late Donald Fisher, co-founders of the Gap Inc. Nixon Peabody LLPs Art & Cultural Institutions Practice, led by partner Thaddeus J. Stauber, served as deal counsel and advisor to the Fisher Family and SFMOMA to create this unprecedented agreement.
This complex development agreement was formalized after the Fishers announced their intention to loan their private collection to the museum prior to the death of Mr. Fisher in 2009. The Fisher Collection will be on view at SFMOMA for a 100- year period. SFMOMAs 10-story expansion includes 170,000 square feet of new and renovated indoor and outdoor galleries tailored to the collection, enabling SFMOMA to display even more of its outstanding holdings of modern and contemporary artwork.
This first-of-its-kind collaboration between the Fisher Family and SFMOMA is a new model of how partnerships between museums and collections can be successful in the future, said SFMOMA Director Neal Benezra. As deal counsel, Nixon Peabody created a road map for our expansion. This new partnership has been met with great enthusiasm from the art community who has rallied around this expansion with excitement.
Thad and his team at Nixon Peabody played a critical role in achieving our collective goal of bringing the Fisher Collection to SFMOMA and defining the museums future, added Charles R. Schwab, Chair of SFMOMAs Board of Trustees. Using his dynamic negotiation skills and innovative legal strategy, Thad guided our Board to a successful and long lasting agreement with the Fisher Trust."
The Fisher Collection includes an impressive array of painting, sculpture, photography, and new media works, by artists including Alexander Calder, Chuck Close, Ellsworth Kelly, Roy Lichtenstein, Gerhard Richter, Cy Twombly, Andy Warhol, and many others.
In addition to this partnership agreement, Mr. Stauber and his team which included Washington, D.C. partner Michael Cooney, Los Angeles partner Matthew Grazier, and San Francisco partner Anthony Barron, supported SFMOMAs effort to meet its $610 million campaign goal which covers construction costs, nearly tripling its endowment and funded operating expenses for the three years the museum was closed.