CONTRIBUTING to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art's acquisitions fund is one thing. Throwing thousands of dollars into a pot and helping to decide how to spend it is something else again. But that's what goes on once a year when members of the museum's Collectors Committee gather for a weekend gala and ponder tough choices offered by curators.
Listen to Robert T. Singer, curator of Japanese art, pitching a curiously charming approximation of an elephant, carved circa 1300 by a sculptor who had never laid eyes on the real thing. Singer has been making proposals to the committee for 18
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