[applause] city attorney dennis r. veherre. former mayor willie brown. and the president of the asian art museum foundation. as well as the vice chair for the asian arts commission. carmen chu, our city supervisor. then rosenfield, the city comptroller. and nadia, our city finance public director. welcome all. without further ado, let me give you our mayor, gavin newsom. >> thank you all for taking the time to be here. this is an important moment. we have been working diligently behind the scenes for the last number of months to try to solve a bump in the road in terms of the future of this extraordinary museum, the finest collection of asian art artifacts anywhere in north america. we are very proud of this museum, its place in history, our city, and the contributions from americans that have built this extraordinary place. in fact, last year i gave my state of the city here because of all of the accomplishments and contributions that were made. it goes without saying, when we first made aware of some of the challenges that were taking place and taking