Los Angeles Joins Bidding to Land George Lucas Museum

Entering what had been a two-way fray between San Francisco and Chicago to host George Lucas’s planned Cultural Arts Museum, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti has offered a site and launched a social-media campaign to woo the “Star Wars” filmmaker, the Chicago Tribune reports.

In a letter last week to Mr. Lucas and his wife, Mellody Hobson, Mr. Garcetti touted a location in his city’s Exposition Park, near the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum and several museums. Los Angeles is “a place where [the Lucas museum’s] impact can be amplified like no other,” the mayor wrote in a separate letter on his campaign Web site.

Mr. Lucas, a Bay Area native, initially hoped to build a self-funded home for his collection of movie memorabilia and populist art in San Francisco’s Presidio, but the national park’s board rejected his proposal. San Francisco has offered an alternative site on its waterfront, while Chicago, Ms. Hobson’s home town, is proffering a location near its own museum district.