Armand Hammer built his museum with Occidental Petroleum money and died with shareholders, his son and USC in court

Hammer, chairman of Occidental Petroleum, sat on the Los Angeles County Museum of Art board for nearly 20 years and had pledged his collection, valued at $250 million, to it. After a dispute over display he withdrew. On 21 January 1988 he announced his own museum in Westwood, built with Occidental money next to its headquarters. Occidental shareholders sued. To settle, the company agreed to cap construction at $60 million. In February 1990 the Los Angeles Times reported internal documents showing more than $2 million in costs moved from the museum's books to a subsidiary that owned the headquarters building. The museum opened on 28 November 1990 and Hammer died within a month. By January 1991 the Delaware Supreme Court was hearing dissident shareholders' appeal; Occidental called them "surrogates" of the county museum. Hammer's son Julian and Julian's daughter, one of two people disinherited by name in the will, challenged the appointment of Julian's son Michael as executor. USC asked for two Rubens paintings Hammer had donated in 1965 and borrowed back for his office. A 2007 settlement between the UC Regents and the Hammer Foundation ended disputes over who owned the collection^†.