Previewing yesterday’s escalation of the fight between members of the Cy Twombly Foundation board, Katya Kazakina and Philip Boroff ran this interesting overview of artist foundations that reveals the curious fact of 150 US artist foundations having been formed during the brief nine-year period

“The private foundation world is a wild, wild west,” said Trent Stamp, executive director of the Los Angeles-based Eisner Foundation and founding president of Charity Navigator, which evaluates nonprofits. “There’s an opportunity for great abuse.”

Almost half of the approximately 300 artist-endowed foundations in the U.S. were formed from 1996 to 2005, according to a study by the Aspen Institute. Assets more than tripled in that decade, and the top 127 reported having a combined $2.7 billion as of 2008

A $40,000-an-Hour Fee, Lawsuits Rock Artist Foundations (Bloomberg)