But LGW’s real goal is to reestablish London’s place in the art world. The city has some competitive advantages, Epstein told me: a combination of cheap real estate, especially outside of Mayfair; low wage demands from staff (I’m sure they love to hear that); and the presence of six top art schools in the city that feed an ever-renewing supply of talent.

That’s not just talent at making art. Many recent graduates will discover that even though they might not have something original to say as artists, they still want to make a career in the art world. Some of them will think about opening galleries. And that is precisely what Rustin wants LGW’s visitors to discover. “The narrative they’ve been reading,” she told me on our call, “isn’t conveying what’s going on here.”

George Lucas and Mellody Hobson’s Lucas Museum of Narrative Art won’t open until September, but the publicity onslaught commenced on Friday, with a Vogue.com feature by Nathan Heller. The museum’s path to realization has been convoluted, spanning several cities and multiple staff changes. No one would expect a heavily P.R.-managed story, no matter how well written, to be particularly revelatory, but somehow this one seems to speak volumes just by paying attention.

First and foremost, Heller locates the heart of Lucas’s career and aesthetic approach in his discovery of the universal narratives that underlie all human communities and buttress the sci-fi/Western opera Star Wars franchise. Ostensibly, the museum is built around these narratives, and one of Lucas’s goals appears to be equalizing the perception of film, illustration, and so-called fine art as mediums for art making. From his quotes and Heller’s descriptions, Lucas seems to be motivated by some level of frustration or resentment at art historians. Or, as Heller puts it, “It can be surprising to find the founder of one of the nation’s largest, most prosperous popular-creative empires engaged in what he perceives to be an underdog battle against a subset of humanities academics.”

It’s hard to know whether his animosity was forged in battles with academics on the long trek toward building and programming the museum, or simply a resentment that his favored form of art is not sufficiently esteemed. Heller does quote Lucas saying this: “I’ve worked with hundreds of illustrators and they never get credit for anything. They’re not going to end up in museums, because the art world is elitist and illustrators are seen as lowly.” More breadcrumbs of Lucas’s frustration come by way of Hobson’s observation that “George wanted the artists and the art to be in an important building.” Also: “If the building looks important, people will understand that art must be important too.”

Meanwhile, the rest of us are having trouble wrapping our heads around whether the Lucas Museum is an actual institution with a definable and recognizable mission that will resonate with visitors and justify the time, expense, and space devoted to it. The other options, of course, are that it is a Star Wars museum, as much of the public probably wants; an ego project for Lucas himself; or simply a pumped-up version of a retired couple throwing themselves into building their dream house—only to sell it at a loss a few years later.

That’s more than enough for today. I’m already sorting data from the May sales for tomorrow’s Inner Circle issue. By the way, if you’re not a member of the Inner Circle, you should upgrade here. The content’s great, and you now also get access to Air Mail as a bonus. Give it a try.

’Til tomorrow,
M