Los Angeles city and county officials have authorized negotiations aimed at incorporating the billionaire philanthropist Eli Broad’s planned art museum into a downtown revitalization effort, reports the Los Angeles Times.

In other arts news, Laughlin (Loc) Phillips, the former Central Intelligence Agency official who took the lead role in reviving his family’s Washington art museum, died January 24 at age 85, The Washington Post reports. The cause was complications from prostate cancer.

Mr. Phillips served 35 years as board chairman and 12 years as executive director of the Phillips Collection, founded by his father in 1921 and widely considered the first U.S. museum devoted to modern art. His administrative acumen is widely credited for transforming the Phillips from what he called “an idiosyncratic, underfunded family-run museum” into a respected and financially stable professional institution.

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