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Tom James of Raymond James Financial commits up to $75 million for art museum

 
Tom James’ art collection is primarily known for its Western and wildlife art. About 400 of the best examples in that genre would make up the permanent collection he would give to the museum.
Tom James’ art collection is primarily known for its Western and wildlife art. About 400 of the best examples in that genre would make up the permanent collection he would give to the museum.
Published Oct. 31, 2014

Tom James has been talking for almost 10 years about founding a museum to house his vast art collection without having any specific plans.

Until now.

He still has major decisions to make, but he has committed up to $75 million of his personal fortune to building it, identified several sites in St. Petersburg he would like to explore and set a target date, June 30, to find a location so the project can get rolling. He no longer speaks of hoping to get it done; he seems resolved to do so.

"I'm in excellent health," he says. "But as I advance in age, the pressure escalates."

James, 72, still is an active leader at Raymond James Financial Inc., the company his father founded and that he developed into a giant in the financial industry. He's now the company's executive chairman and much of his time is spent with complicated "compliance and new product approval" issues, for example.

Art continues to be a great love. Since he began buying it when a student at Harvard University, James has amassed more that 2,500 works — bought personally by him and his wife, Mary, and not by the company — most of them paintings but also sculpture and prints.

There are more than enough for his home and the company headquarters where evidence of his passion fills the walls, and plenty more for a museum.

Though his collection includes other genres, it's best known for its Western and wildlife art and about 400 of the best examples in that genre would make up the permanent collection that he would give to the museum. Assessing the value of art is always a moving target, but James estimates that the group would probably be valued between $20 million and $25 million.

The cost of the building is based on his experience with the Dalí Museum, where, as chairman of its board, he oversaw the construction of its new facility that opened in 2011.

"It took $40 million to do the Dalí so that's what I'm basing the building cost on, factoring in I might have to buy the land," he said, "though (the building) wouldn't be as big." (The Dalí has about 65,000 square feet.)

"I also plan to put $30 (million) to $35 million in an endowment because a museum of this kind would probably never have the kind of attendance that the Dalí has" to supply needed revenue.

"There is no question I could be in Tampa," he says, "but I prefer to be in St. Pete" in the downtown area near other museums. He mentions the possibility of working with the city and having it as a component of a new Pier, working with Bill Edwards on something (though he has ruled out Sundial, the former BayWalk that Edwards has redeveloped in the downtown) or as part of one of the commercial or residential projects being developed by others.

It could be perceived as a vanity project by a wealthy man, but James, who has served on the Dalí board for decades and been active in the Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg, wants this to be a bona fide museum, eventually accredited by the American Alliance of Museums, the organization that controls standards of museums and has a rigorous accreditation process. "I went through that with the Dalí," he said. "It was difficult but important."

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He continues to collect art but with an eye toward a museum collection. Much of his Western and wildlife art is modern and contemporary so he is rounding it out with examples from the 19th century when the West became better known through artists who traveled there and created mythic, romantic images of it. No big names — Albert Bierstadt, for example — but he's monitoring the auction houses and galleries for possible sales.

"At my wife's insistence, I'm moving the ball," he said. "The money has been committed so one of my children could do it, or Mary. But she's said, 'Don't you dare leave me with this.' I'm under strict instructions."

Contact Lennie Bennett at lbennett@tampabay.com or (727) 893-8293.