Joseph Giovannini scrutinizes LACMA director Michael Govan’s failures and deceptions surrounding the museum’s renovations.

Until about two weeks ago, announcements by Michael Govan, director of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, were always reassuring: don’t worry, the new structure replacing the four existing gallery buildings on the East Campus would equal their total square footage, though the gallery space might be a wee bit smaller. Then the bombshell exploded: the Final Environmental Impact Report (EIR) released in late March slapped Angelenos to attention when they learned they would be paying $650 million to get a building that would be 105,108 square feet smaller than the originals, with 53,000 square feet less gallery space...