Four Hammer Artworks to Be Returned to USC : Art: The late philanthropist had borrowed his donated paintings and held them despite the university’s requests for their return.

Four paintings donated to USC in 1965 by the late Armand Hammer but that the industrialist borrowed back several years ago and held in defiance of requests for their return will be given back to the university next month, USC’s Fisher Gallery has announced.

The paintings include “The Nativity” by the Flemish master Peter Paul Rubens. That picture and a second Rubens came to prominence in early 1990 when it was disclosed that Hammer had borrowed them and several others back and ignored repeated requests by USC for their return.

The other Rubens, “Venus Wounded by a Thorn,” was returned to USC several months ago after the university threatened a lawsuit. The incident became a subplot to a simultaneous controversy over construction of the Armand Hammer Museum of Art and Cultural Center in Westwood, which opened last November.

The return “is a result, I think, of a desire on the part of the new Hammer authorities to create a better relationship with their constituencies,” said Selma Holo, the Fisher Gallery’s director. “It really is a wonderful thing. It has been done with grace and no real difficulties. It is going to be glorious.”

She said resolution of the Occidental dispute comes as the university is reviewing architectural plans for renovation of one wing of the Fisher Gallery to house its entire permanent collection holdings. The renovated wing will not open until January, 1993, Holo said, and USC does not expect the Hammer works to be displayed until sometime the following year.

As the USC aspect of the larger Hammer museum controversy developed between January of last year and Hammer’s death on Dec. 10, Occidental and the university began negotiations for an unprecedented deal in which Hammer would have bought back the entire collection of 49 paintings that he had given USC. Although the California attorney general’s office, which regulates charitable organizations, approved the transaction, Hammer died before it could be completed.

It was believed at the time that Hammer was interested in the buyback to buttress his remaining collection, which forms the permanent holdings of the Hammer museum. While the Hammer museum collection includes a few prominent pictures, many critics have agreed it lacks the quality and depth to sustain an entire museum.

The agreement to return the remaining borrowed artworks by Ray Irani, Occidental Petroleum’s president, and Michael Hammer, grandson of the late industrialist, was disclosed by Holo this week. Although Occidental declined to comment, Holo said the paintings would arrive at the university Sept. 12. Michael Hammer is executor of Armand Hammer’s estate and serves as de facto chief executive of the Hammer museum.

Holo said Occidental had also agreed to drop a restriction in the original Hammer gift that requires the university to maintain set percentages of the collection on public view at all times. Under the new gift terms, Holo said, timing of exhibitions and selection of objects from the Hammer holdings will be at the Fisher Gallery’s discretion as is normal practice in most museums.

In addition to the Rubens, paintings to be returned Sept. 12 include William Pietersz Buytewech’s “The Gay Party,” Renier Nooms’ “Ships in Harbor” and Adriaen van de Velde’s “The Oyster Pickers.”

“The Rubens is obviously the most significant,” Holo said. “The other pictures are siblings of the rest of the collection and representative of the period so they can help (a visitor) understand the collection and other work of the 17th Century.”