LOS ANGELES, CA.- The Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) announced it has elected Peter M. Brant, Steven T. Mnuchin, and Victor Pinchuk to its Board of Trustees, further boosting the institution’s national and international preeminence and marking a continued swell of support during the museum’s turnaround year in 2009. With these three new trustees, MOCA has added 10 trustees to its board this year, naming among the most new board members of any arts institution in America.

The announcement of the new trustees comes on the heels of the MOCA NEW 30th Anniversary Gala in November, which drew more than 1,000 international, national and local celebrities, collectors, artists and patrons—including the three new trustees—and raised more than $4 million, bringing the museum’s one-year fundraising total to $64 million.

“We are honored and delighted that three of the world’s leading art collectors share our vision for MOCA NEW and will play a leading role in continuing to build MOCA’s collection and exhibitions into the contemporary art powerhouse it has become,” said MOCA Board Co-Chair David G. Johnson. “Victor Pinchuk is the most influential collector in Eastern Europe, Peter Brant is one of America’s best known collectors, and Steven Mnuchin is known around the world for his business acumen and support of the arts. And all of them share our deep conviction that art must be shared with the broadest public.”

“The 10 visionaries who have joined the MOCA Board this year represent the vibrant future of this great museum,” said Board Co-Chair Maria Arena Bell. “Their enthusiasm, passion, and dedication to MOCA are an integral part of this exciting new era for the museum, and our board looks forward to working together to continue building MOCA’s worldrenowned exhibitions and programming.”

The new members of the Board join the following seven trustees elected this year: Nancy Marks, Carolyn Powers, Darren Star, Marc I. Stern, and Lilly Tartikoff, and returning trustees Gil Friesen and Peter Morton. All of MOCA’s trustees have committed to a minimum of $75,000 in annual dues, with additional contributions their first year.

In addition to the infusion of new talent to MOCA’s Board, a fundraising tally to date of more than $64 million, the most successful gala in the museum’s history, a balanced budget for the next two years, no debt, and the unveiling of the largest exhibition of the museum’s permanent collection, MOCA has embarked on an international search for a new director. MOCA trustees have interviewed almost a dozen candidates from Europe and the United States and expect to announce a new director early in 2010.

Following are brief bios of the three newly elected trustees:

Peter M. Brant is known throughout the world as a leading art collector and philanthropist. Brant is the owner and chairman of Brant Publications, Inc., which publishes The Magazine Antiques, Art in America, Interview, and Modern magazines. He is also chairman and chief executive officer of White Birch Paper Company, the second-largest manufacturer of newsprint in North America. In 2009, he opened The Brant Foundation Art Study Center, whose mission is to make works of art available for scholarly study, examination, and loan. Brant is a member of the Advisory Council of the Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh, and a former member of the board of trustees of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation. In addition, he produced the award-winning films Basquiat (1986), and Pollock (2000), along with a PBS documentary, Andy Warhol: A Documentary (2006).

Steven T. Mnuchin is chairman and chief executive officer of OneWest Bank Group, a Federal Savings Bank holding company formed by an investor group to acquire the business and assets of IndyMac Federal Bank from the FDIC. OneWest Bank has 33 retail branches in Southern California with total assets of $18 billion. Mnuchin is also chairman and co-chief executive officer of Dune Capital Management LP, a private investment management firm. Prior to this, Mnuchin spent 17 years at Goldman Sachs where he was a partner in the firm and had broad-based management and investment responsibilities. Mnuchin served as executive vice president, the firm’s chief information officer, and a member of the firm’s Management Committee.

A third-generation art collector, Mnuchin is a trustee of The Whitney Museum of American Art and New York Presbyterian Hospital. He is also a member of the Board of Sears Holding Corporation and chairman of its Corporate Governance Committee and a former trustee of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden.

Victor Pinchuk is a major collector of contemporary art and the Ukraine’s most successful businessmen. With a Ph.D. in metallurgy, he founded Interpipe Company in 1990 on the basis of his patented innovations in pipe design, engineering, and production. In 2006, he founded EastOne Ltd., an international investment advisory company with a portfolio of more than 20 international business and large-scale projects. Pinchuk served two terms as an elected member of the Ukrainian Parliament, from 1998 to 2006. He is also a member of the World Economic Forum and one of the leading contributors to the Clinton Global Initiative.

For more than 12 years, Pinchuk has been developing and supporting a number of philanthropic projects and in 2006, he established the Victor Pinchuk Foundation, the largest private Ukrainian philanthropic foundation, known for implementing projects in important fields of social development. In September 2006, he founded the PinchukArtCentre, one of the largest centers and collections of contemporary art in Eastern Europe, drawing the highest attendance in the region and featuring recent exhibitions such as New Space (2006); REFLECTION (2008), showcasing recent acquisitions; and Requiem (2009), a major retrospective including over 100 works by Damien Hirst. Pinchuk has among the world’s largest collections of Jeff Koons, Damien Hirst, Andreas Gursky, and Takashi Murakami. In addition to a contest to identify the best Ukrainian contemporary artist, Pinchuk recently launched The Future Generation Art Prize, a global competition to identify emerging artists.