LACMA’s New Galleries Feature Million-Dollar Curtains

Why this is here: The curtains achieved a Visible Light Transmission (VLT) rate of just 3.35%, an unusually low figure for a museum textile designed to filter sunlight.

Japanese artist Reiko Sudo spent five years developing custom curtains for the Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s new David Geffen Galleries. Sudo and her team sought the perfect formula—an alloy of chromium crafted by artisans in Saitama, Japan—to shield artwork from sunlight within the museum’s recently opened expansion. The project began after architect Peter Zumthor requested a textile resembling wood grain, sparking years of prototyping and experimentation.

The new galleries themselves cost roughly $724 million, with $125 million coming from public funds, and faced criticism regarding budget and design. Sudo’s studio created over one hundred prototypes, ultimately achieving a remarkably low Visible Light Transmission (VLT) of 3.35%. This level of precision required combining advanced metal-fixing technology with generations of Japanese weaving expertise.

LACMA declined to disclose the cost of the curtains, but Sudo defends the project’s budget as an investment in preserving cultural heritage for future generations. While the team successfully created a unique material, further research may be needed to assess the long-term durability of the chromium alloy.