[1] The museum contains the Norton Simon Theater which shows film programs daily, and hosts lectures, symposia, and dance and musical performances year-round.

[4] Hopps later drew up a short list of California architects for a new museum building, including Richard Neutra, Charles Eames, John Lautner, Craig Ellwood, and Thornton Ladd.

[6][7] The distinctive and modern curvilinear exterior facade is faced in 115,000 glazed tiles, in varying rich brown tones with an undulating surface, made by ceramic artisan Edith Heath.

By that time, industrialist Norton Simon, who had risen to become one of the pre-eminent art collectors in the world during the 1960s, was searching for a permanent location for his growing collection of over 4,000 objects.

According to the agreed five-year plan, Simon took over an $850,000 loan on the building and other financial obligations, including a $1 million accumulated operating deficit, in return for using 75% of the gallery space for his collection.

Simon died in 1993, and the actress Jennifer Jones, his widow and chairwoman of the board, made corrective, conciliatory moves that have repositioned the museum and its two collections.

[2] The redesign resulted in a procession of medium-size, more intimate galleries with raised ceilings and improved lighting, increased rotating exhibition space, an entire floor devoted to Asian art, and restored access to the gardens.

The new Norton Simon Theater was the final element of the renovation, designed by Gensler & Associates, and is used for lectures, film, dance performances and concerts.

On display are holdings from India, Pakistan, Nepal, Tibet, Cambodia and Thailand, as well as selected works from Afghanistan, Myanmar, Bangladesh, China, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, and Japan.

The collection is particularly rich in art from the Indian subcontinent, including monumental stone sculpture from the Kushana and Gupta periods, and a remarkable group of Chola bronzes from southern India.

[20][21] The museum's early Baroque paintings from Italy and Spain are represented by such noted artists as Guido Reni, Guercino, Murillo and Zurbarán.

The French component of the 18th century collection contains paintings by Watteau, Fragonard and Boucher, while Italy is represented with capriccios and historic glimpses into the daily life of Rome and Venice with works by Longhi, Pannini, Guardi, Canaletto, and Tiepolo.

The museum's paintings by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres and Francisco de Goya mark the beginning of the 19th century and lead to superb examples of mid-century Realism executed by Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, Gustave Courbet and Édouard Manet.

The museum has an extensive collection of Modern art, with seminal works by Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, Henri Matisse, and Diego Rivera on permanent view.

Major sculptors of the 19th century and early 20th century, including Aristide Maillol, Constantin Brâncuși, Henry Moore, Barbara Hepworth, and Isamu Noguchi, are represented by works in bronze, lead and marble sculptures throughout the galleries and outside the museum, including the Front Garden and Colorado Boulevard lawn, as well as the extensive Sculpture Garden grounds.

[23] Jennifer Jones' Hollywood connections brought members of the film and television community, including Billy Wilder, Gregory Peck, Cary Grant, David Geffen, Tom Brokaw, and Candice Bergen, to the Norton Simon's museum board.

The sculpture in question was owned by the Norton Simon Art Foundation and has been on display since 1980, and although Cambodian authorities have long known it was there, they had not sought its return until recently.

Marei van Saher filed suit, seeking the return of the paintings and alleging that they were confiscated by the Nazi's from her father-in-law, Jacques Goudstikker, a prominent Dutch Jewish art dealer.