Philanthropist Eli Broad sparked controversy in January 2008 when he announced that he would be donating most of his 1,900 piece art collection not to the Los Angeles County Art Museum (LACMA), where he is a trustee, but to his Broad Art Foundation, which loans contemporary art to museums around the world. In a recent interview with the Wall Street Journal, he describes that decision as part of an effort to help smaller museums and maximize the educational reach of his collection.

"Museums do not share their collections with other museums unless they get something in exchange,” he says. “The Metropolitan [Museum of Art] will deal with the Louvre, but will they send their stuff to Memphis? No.” Broad argues that small museums have great difficulty competing against larger institutions for funding and quality work. His foundation has made over 7,000 loans to over 450 groups since its creation in 1984.

The long-time donor to educational reform initiatives and health care research also questions the size of some museum budgets, which he says are “sometimes hard to justify” compared to other “human needs.”

Throughout, Broad seems intent on using his wealth to challenge philanthropic orthodoxy, saying that he is “willing to make investments knowing that some are going to fail.” It is a stance that has provoked criticism before. Writing just after Broad's decision not to donate his collection to LACMA, Time art critic Richard Lacayo declared, “LACMA got screwed.”

Read more at the Wall Street Journal.