$100-Million in Cars, Real Estate, and Cash Donated to Los Angeles Museum

A car museum in Los Angeles has received an automobile collection of 135 cars, a 300,000-square-foot building, and cash, which together total $100-million, from the widow of the publishing tycoon who founded the institution.

The Petersen Automotive Museum Foundation learned six weeks ago that it would receive a gift from Margie Petersen and the Margie & Robert E. Petersen Foundation, but according to the museum’s executive director, Buddy Pepp, it got wind of how large the donation would be only about a week ago.

The gift is largely unrestricted, but Ms. Peterson has asked the board to raise money to match a portion of it.

Ms. Petersen is a board member of the museum. Her late husband was the chairman and founder of Petersen Publishing, a company that had more than 36 monthly magazines and over 50 annual publications, including Motor Trend and Hot Rod. He died in 2007.

Founded With Big Gift

The Petersons donated $24.8-million in 2000 to establish the Petersen Automotive Museum Foundation as an independent nonprofit organization. Ms. Petersen’s new donation includes the block-square building on Wilshire Boulevard that has housed the museum since 1994 and the Petersens’ collection of 135 cars, In addition, the gift includes cash, but Mr. Pepp declined to reveal how much.

Mr. Pepp says that the museum plans to use the donation to finance maintenance and repairs, to hire a fund-raising staff, to create an endowment, to start a library of its thousands of volumes of books, magazines, and catalogs, and for the May Family Discovery Center, an interactive exhibit for children.

“Gearheads all around the world are going to just rejoice at this wonderful gift,” Mr. Pepp says. “It’s going to ensure that this wonderful institution will be here for my great-great-great-great-grandchildren.”