Lucas Museum of Narrative Art Opens Murals Gallery with Banksy, Diego Rivera and Judy Baca

Key facts

• The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art opened to the public last month.
• A top-floor gallery is devoted to murals, featuring a reproduction of Diego Rivera's 1933 Rockefeller Center mural.
• The Rivera reproduction is based on a smaller version Rivera created in Mexico City after Nelson Rockefeller had the original demolished.
• The adjoining gallery displays 12 works by Banksy, including Girl with Balloon and a maquette for Flag Man.
• Two Banksy works are on loan; others were reproduced in his studio.
• Museum chief executive Tracey Bates could not explain how Banksy's works arrived at the institution.
• A Wall Street Journal profile revealed Banksy's work played a central role in George Lucas's courtship of Mellody Hobson.
• The gallery also shows preparatory drawings for Judy Baca's The Great Wall of Los Angeles (1974-present), which received a $5m Mellon Foundation grant in 2021 for extension to 2019, due for completion in 2028.
• Senior curator Ryan Linkof said murals were always planned to figure prominently in the collection and galleries.
• Works by John Biggers, Dean Cornwell and Charles White are also on display.
• A Banksy installation on the second floor features lion sculptures with a whip and bloodied muzzle, labelled Pair of ornamental garden Lions with added parts, 2026.