A water pipe burst this month at the Asian Art Museum, forcing staff to close many of the galleries, including the entire third floor, until further notice, The Standard has learned. No artwork or artifacts were damaged, according to Freesia Lee, a spokesperson for the museum.
Angela Yip, a spokesperson for the city, which contracts insurance for the museum, estimates that remediation could cost up to $3.5 million.
Security personnel discovered the leak around 2 a.m. on July 19. A bolt holding two pipes together failed in the fourth-floor ceiling, where the museum’s offices are located.
The leak damaged sections of all three of the museum’s gallery floors, as well as the offices. The third floor, which exhibits work from South Asia, the Himalayas, Persia, and China, is closed until further notice.
“Some spaces are easy fixes; some require extra diligence to ensure the art remains safe,” Lee said. “We are confident enough, though, to keep doors open to the public.”
One silver lining for guests: All open galleries and exhibitions are temporarily free of charge, which has led to a 40% uptick in attendance, Lee said.
Much like the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, which oversees the de Young and Legion of Honor, the Asian Art Museum is split into twin organizations — one run by the city and one a private corporation. Because the city owns the building and collection, it also insures it.
The museum is in the midst of an art rotation, so in addition to the areas shuttered because of the leak, three galleries on the first floor are closed as new exhibitions are prepared, and several cases are empty on the second floor.
The city has contracted Belfor Property Restoration to restore the museum’s walls, according to Lee. Representatives for the restoration company did not respond to a request for comment.
In April, the museum lost the majority of a $350,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to repair its fire suppression system, after President Donald Trump nixed funding across the federal agency. Lee said the pipe that burst was not part of the museum’s fire suppression system; that repair will go forward using city funds.
Since 2021, the Asian Art Museum had been embroiled in legal disputes with WHY Architecture Workshop Inc. and Swinerton Builders over a $38 million museum expansion. The museum says the addition, designed by WHY and built by Swinerton, was delivered late and “failed to meet even the minimum museum-quality standards,” with leaks and other quality issues. The lawsuits were settled out of court last summer. However, Lee said this month’s leak was in a separate part of the building and was unrelated.