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The recent unveiling of the new Equitable Center's lobby drew the leading lights of New York's business and cultural worlds, and Equitable Chairman Robert F. Froehlke admits he was a bit overwhelmed at the evening's end.
It wasn't the presence of the city's powerful and influential that dazzled Mr. Froehlke. Rather, it was the lobby itself, now the centerpiece of one of the largest corporate art complexes ever created.
"All the crowds and the excitement -- it's been so long in the making I had to find myself a corner to take in what we had done," Mr. Froehlke says, on an elevator ride up the new office tower of the Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United States at 787 Seventh Ave., between 51st and 52nd streets.
The Equitable's acquisition and display of paintings and sculpture is part of the tremendous growth in the size and number of corporate art collections. Corporate art collections are estimated to be worth at least $2 billion today, according to Business Committee for the Arts Inc., a New York-based nonprofit association of business executives.
But its size and its impact make it much more.
"I travel the country looking at art collections. In terms of art and ascessibility to the public, Equitable at this point has the finest collection and display of corporate art in the country," says Judith A. Jedlicka, president of Business Committee for the Arts. "It will serve as a model to other corporations."
Equitable spent $7.5 million for the artwork (sculpture, framed paintings, murals) it sprinkled throughout the complex, which includes a new branch of the Whitney Museum of American Art, a five-story atrium, enormous hallways, outdoor plazas, a midblock Galleria and three restaurants. The artwork can be found even in executive dining rooms on Equitable's 49th floor (which will occasionally be available to the public).
The...