Housing one of the largest university art collections in the US, the UC Berkeley Art Museum was born in 1963 when Abstract Expressionist painter Hans Hofmann (1880-1966), having left Nazi Germany with the aid of two UC professors, donated 45 paintings and $250,000 to the university. After a 1997 inspection showed that its distinctive home (1970, Mario Ciampi, Richard Jorasch and Ronald Wagner) did not meet seismic standards, the museum announced plans for a new building at Oxford and Center Streets near the university's western entrance. In addition to Hofmann's work, the 9,000-piece permanent collection is strong in 20C art, pre-20C European painting, Asian ceramics and painting, and contemporary art and sculpture. The museum also mounts changing exhibitions from university and traveling collections.