The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) received a $45 million boost coming in the form of a donation from beverage tycoons Stewart and Lynda Resnick. The destination of the money is funding the renovation of the museum and the building of a gigantic new gallery for special exhibits.

The donation will be announced on Monday. Talking about the wave of renovations, the museum’s chief executive Michael Govan labeled it as a “sort of a required expansion" in order to meet the public demand.

The donation isn’t all money. The Resnicks will also donate a part of their personal art collection which is estimated to be worth about $10 million.

The Beverly Hills couple owns Roll International Corp., owner of he POM Wonderful pomegranate juice and Fiji Water brands. The couple is a long-time supporter of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.  

"We can think of no better way to buttress this rapidly evolving museum than to create additional space for the exhibition of art," Lynda Resnick stated.

The money will be used mainly to finance the construction of a 45,000-square-foot exhibition pavilion designed by Renzo Piano. The exhibition pavilion will be located behind the Broad Contemporary Art Museum. The construction of the building will be completed in 2010 and will bear Resnicks’ name.

Architect Renzo Piano was also behind the construction of the Broad Contemporary Art Museum that opened in the LA museum’s campus in February. It hosts works including those of Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol and Jeff Koons.

The museum has been facing a tough period and is now making efforts to overhaul itself since former director of New York-based Dia Art Foundation took over the LA museum in the early 2006. The museum already gathered the $201 million needed to finance the wave of rebuilding and the latest donation came as a big balloon of oxygen during a tough period for museums in general considering the financial crisis which the United States are facing.