December 8, 2005 | Read Time: 1 minute
Although his name may not be well-known outside well-heeled circles, Peter Lawson-Johnston has played a quiet but powerful role as heir to the Guggenheim “museum dynasty,” writes Worth magazine (December).
In an interview, Mr. Lawson-Johnston, honorary chairman of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, admits that he came to be the de facto conservator of his family’s art collections in a roundabout way.
Although he knew little about art, he was chosen by his second cousin Harry Guggenheim, who was impressed with the acumen he’d shown in other family businesses.
“My role at the museum has always been a business one,” he says, and it is still “the financial viability of the whole enterprise” that occupies much of his time.
In the article, Mr. Lawson-Johnston asserts that museums without large endowments must sometimes sell artworks to pay expenses — a controversial practice — and discusses the reality of recruiting very wealthy people to museum boards.
“We require a minimum $100,000 annual fee to be a trustee at the Guggenheim; that eliminates many wonderful people,” he says. “We do, of course, have some art-oriented people on the board, who we value ever so highly because of their knowledge and reputation — but only a handful.”
Elsewhere in the issue, Nicholas Ferguson writes that people in the United Kingdom donate roughly half as much money to charity as Americans. But that gap is closing, in part because of lower tax rates and “bountiful wealth creation.” And Britons are unabashedly imitating American forms of giving, Mr. Ferguson says, including community foundations and venture philanthropy.
