An Avocation That Became A Legacy California's New Armand Hammer Museum Ensures That the Late Industrialist's Art Collection Will Have a Lasting - If Controversial - Home

Beginning of article

THE Armand Hammer Museum and Cultural Center was Armand Hammer's final dream. The billionaire industrialist's last public appearances were in celebration of the horizontally striped marble building that now houses his $450-million art collection.

Formally unveiled Nov. 28, just two weeks before Hammer's death on Dec. 10, the structure ensures that his lifelong avocation as a collector - in which he amassed over 100 European masterpieces by Rembrandt, Rubens, Renoir, and others in five decades of globe-trotting - will be his most enduring legacy.

Like the career of Hammer himself, the new museum is steeped in controversy. Born out of conflict when Hammer reneged on …