Wednesday October 31
NEW
MANHATTAN MUSEUM FOR GERMAN ART: New York has a new "personal"
museum in a class with the Frick Collection and the Morgan Library.
It's the Neue Galerie which was conceived, funded, and overseen
to the last detail by cosmetics millionaire Ronald Lauder. "The
Neue Galerie [is] devoted entirely to German and Austrian fine
and decorative arts." The New York Times 10/31/01 (one-time
registration required for access)
TYRANNY
OF INTERNATIONALISM: Are contemporary Egyptian artists being
stifled because foreigners control the country's art business?
"If the most active of these galleries are owned by foreigners,
who have been accused of monopolizing modern art to fit their
images, is the trend to promote art forms that are totally foreign
to Egypt and Egyptian artists, forms that focus on denying national
identity in favor of an international one?"
Egypt Today 10/29/01
JAPANESE MUSEUM
DIRECTOR FINED FOR BRIBES: The former vice-director of a Japanese
museum has been fined 9.2 million yen ($75,000) for accepting
bribes from the head of an art sales company. The fine is equal
to the amount of the alleged bribe. Mainichi
Shimbun 10/30/01
BERLIN
HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL BEGINS: "The first symbolic spadeful
of earth has been removed from a huge site in central Berlin set
aside to commemorate the six million Jews who died in the Nazi
Holocaust. The memorial - a vast field of nearly 3,000 concrete
columns - is to be built near the Brandenburg Gate and the site
of Hitler's wartime bunker." BBC
10/31/01
Tuesday October 30
BRITISH
MUSEUM CRISIS: "The museum’s deficit last year was just
over £3 million and there would have been a similar deficit this
year, unless drastic action had been taken. The cuts will lead
to shorter opening hours, a rota of closed galleries, cancellation
of exhibitions, reduced building maintenance, a reduction of education
programmes, a freeze on most new posts, and the requirement for
foreign borrowing institutions to meet the full costs of loans,
including curatorial time." The
Art Newspaper 10/29/01
ITALIAN
PRIVATIZATION SCHEME CRITICIZED: Members of a left-wing coalition
in the Italian parliament are blasting a plan by the Berlusconi
government to privatize the nation's art museums. Those in charge
of the plan are defending it, pointing out that "the public
sector would retain responsibility for exhibitions and the protection
of cultural assets." BBC 10/30/01
TATE
BRITAIN EXPANSION OPENS: "The Prince of Wales will open
art gallery Tate Britain's £32.3m centenary development on Tuesday.
The project, the most significant change to the gallery since
it opened in 1897, gives it a modern entrance, with 10 new and
five refurbished exhibition spaces all built into the neo-classical
structure." BBC 10/30/01
TALE
OF TWO MUSEUMS: The Milwaukee Art Museum's new Calatrava-designed
extension is "a spectacular building that has nothing to
do with the display of art and everything to do with getting crowds
to come to the museum." By contrast, St. Louis' new Pulitzer
Foundation Museum has "created one of the finest small museums
of our time." The New Yorker
10/29/01
BELLAGIO
PULLS BACK ON ART: Las Vegas' Bellagio Hotel has reportedly
canceled exhibitions at its art gallery, and some are wondering
if the experiment with fine art at the hotel is over. "The
Bellagio has cited reduced tourist business as a reason for cutting
back on its exhibitions in the Bellagio Gallery of Fine Art, a
two-room exhibition space located between snack bars and marriage
chapels in the mammoth resort. Business has fallen to the extent
that some 15,000 to 20,000 Las Vegas casino employees have been
laid off." The
Art Newspaper 10/29/01
PELLI
PAC DESIGN DERIDED AS UNIMAGINATIVE: When the Orange County
(CA) Performing Arts Center hired world-renowned architect Cesar
Pelli to design its new concert hall, hopes were high that what
had been a second-rate suburban performance space could rise to
the level of its Los Angeles competitors. But Pelli's design,
unveiled this month, doesn't offer much in the way of distinction
or creativity. Los Angeles Times 10/30/01
HERITAGE
RANKING? The Australian Democratic Party unveils its cultural
policy platform - one priority will be to ask for a World Heritage
listing for the Sydney Opera House, joining other landmarks like
the Taj Mahal. The
Australian 10/30/01
Monday October 29
A
HOME FOR THE PARTHENON MARBLES: Britain still has not said
it has any plans to return the Parthenon marbles to Greece. But
evidently the Greeks think they will get them back. "A £29
million Acropolis museum has already been commissioned by the
Greek government to house the 2,300-year-old artefacts. Plans
for the building, which will stand at the foot of the Acropolis
hill are understood to include a glass gallery with windows or
roof designed so that the marbles can be seen against the background
of the Parthenon." The
Guardian (UK) 10/26/01
MONUMENTAL
MEMORIES: How do we as a society remember important events
such as the WTC attacks? "In the last few decades, the reliability
of memory, particularly traumatic memory, has been questioned.
But while individual memory is under fire, collective memory is
being hotly pursued. A public memorial or a ruin is a scaffold,
something on which collective memory can hang. But that does not
mean that it helps people remember things. With his concept of
sites of memory, the French editor Pierre Nora has argued that
monuments are built in place of memory." New
York Times 10/27/01 (one-time
registration required for access)
MURAL
CLASH: Artist Mike McNeilly is suing the city of Los Angeles
for making him take down a 10-story-high patriotic mural hanging
from the side of a building. McNeilly says his free-speech rights
have been violated. The city says the banner violates a city ban
on new billboards and that the artist “cynically took advantage
of the national tragedy to further his financial interests by
putting up this mural.” FreedomForum
10/26/01
SAME
BY EXTENSION: The new extension of the Tate Britain Museum
is about to open. "A huge hole has been sliced into the side
of the old Tate. New galleries have been dropped in. And do you
know? It is quite possible that some people won't even notice."
Sunday Times (UK) 10/29/01
TEMPLATE
FOR FAILURE: The British government had the idea for a "Millennium
Village" to make a "template" for design in the
21st Century. So it "staged an international competition
for a masterplan that would combine private and social housing,
which would set new standards in sustainability and which would
put a premium on architectural quality. But like everything else
that the Dome has touched, the village has not turned out as advertised.
The project has been beset by delays in construction and the resignation
of one of the original architects after bitter claims that the
innovative aspects of their designs were being diluted out of
existence by the developers." The
Observer (UK) 10/28/01
FAMILY
MATTERS: "The death of the billionaire aesthete Daniel
Wildenstein has brought to an end the most revealing chapter so
far in the history of perhaps the world’s wealthiest, most secretive
family of art dealers." The
Times (UK) 10/26/01
THE
PICASSO VIRUS: In a remarkable new book, Picasso, My Grandfather,
to be published on November 8, Marina Picasso describes how each
member of the family became dependent on and cravenly submissive
to Picasso's towering ego. 'The Picasso virus to which we fell
victim was subtle and undetectable," she says. "It was a combination
of promises not kept, abuse of power, mortification, contempt
and, above all, incommunicability. We were defenceless against
it'." Sunday
Times (UK) 10/28/01
Sunday October 28
LOUVRE
REOPENS AFTER STRIKE: Striking workers at the Louvre agreed
to suspend their strike and reopen the museum. "The museum
is one of many Paris tourist sites – including the Orsay Museum
and the Arc de Triomphe – that have been closed due to a 20-day-old
strike by Culture Ministry workers. At times during strike, Louvre
workers have let visitors in free as part of the protest, but
it was closed for eight straight days before Saturday's opening."
Dallas Morning News (AP) 10/27/01
BUILDING
TOGETHER: They don't have any official power or a mandate
from any governmental agency. But a Who's Who coalition of real
estate executive and architectural firms have banded together
since the September 11 attack on New York with the aim of coming
up with a plan for rebuilding Lower Manhattan. It's a remarkable
and improbable response that speaks volumes about building in
the Big City. New York Times 10/27/01
(one-time registration required for access)
LATIN
AMERICA'S NEW STORY: A Major new museum of Latin American
art opens in Buenos Aires. "Art scholars say the privately
funded museum is among the most comprehensive of a handful of
institutions dedicated to the major artists who documented the
divine lunacy of Latin America in the 20th century. Indeed, most
museums in the region tend to stress national greats alongside
a smattering of European artists; Chilean museums stick largely
to Chilean art, Uruguayan museums to Uruguayan painters. But the
new museum here reaches farther, seeking to capture Latin America's
diverse societies in one broad stroke."
Washington Post 10/28/01
TAXING
ART: The British tax department has been accepting artwork
in lieu of taxeds, including a rare Van Dyck. "The Van Dyck
drawing, The Grand Procession of the Order of the Garter,
was commissioned by King Charles I for a palace tapestry in 1638,
was accepted in lieu of $5 million in taxes. The government's
Culture department did not reveal who owned the Van Dyck, but
Christie's auction house said it negotiated the exchange in lieu
of tax on the estate of the 10th Duke of Rutland, whose family
acquired it in 1787." Nando
Times (AP 10/26/01
Friday October 26
CZECH
ART BAN: The Czech government has ordered a ban on transport
of any artwork out of the country. The government is being sued
for $500 million by American Ronald Lauder, and officials are
worried that Lauder will try to impound state-owned artwork.
BBC 10/26/01
BEST
TATE: Tate Modern has won the new Prime Minister's Award for
best new public building. "Tony Blair praised the gallery
for its part in transforming the London borough of Southwark,
saying it had achieved a balance of being 'awe-inspiring while
still being welcoming and accessible'."
BBC 10/26/01
THE
MOLLUSK AS CREATIVE ARTIST: "The most comprehensive exhibit
ever devoted to pearls, and to the paradoxes of their natural
and social history, has just opened at the American Museum of
Natural History. There is probably no product on earth that more
radically dramatizes the discrepancy between the size of a treasure
and its value." The New
Yorker 10/29/01
MODERN
ART AMONG ANCIENT MONUMENTS: The Istanbul Biennial, which
runs through the middle of November, is "one of the most
exciting and accessible of the big international art shows. Since
1987 the organisers have invited curators from across the world
to come to live in the waterfront city and fill its historic spaces
with cutting-edge art." The
Economist 10/25/01
Thursday October 25
REMEMBERING
THE WTC: The owner of the lease on the World Trade Center
site has already begun plans for new buildings there. Meanwhile
others are concerned with coming up with a memorial that "not
be a footnote to a large development project." The
New York Times 10/25/01 (one-time
registration required for access)
CHOOSING
A CITY'S ART: Toronto businessman Lou Odette has been donating
big sculptures (24 so far) to the nearby city of Windsor, which
set up a prominent downtown waterfront sculpture garden for the
art. "The city has taken flak for allowing Odette to decide
what the citizens of Windsor will see on their waterfront promenade,
but the mayor countered that beauty is in the eye of the beholder
and any debate fosters art appreciation." The
Globe & Mail (Canada) 10/24/01
VIEWING GIACOMETTI'S
SCULPTURES: "Stand behind them. Examine their backs and
peer out over their shoulders, if they have any. (Most of them
do; Giacometti was terrific at shoulders.) Gaze into the space
into which the figures are gazing. Suddenly you have a sense of
how Giacometti's art inhabits the world." The New Yorker 10/22/01
PROMINENT
COLLECTOR DIES: "Daniel Wildenstein, one of the world's
leading art dealers and collectors whose family owns two prestigious
Manhattan galleries, has died, the Wildenstein Institute said
Thursday. He was 84." Washington
Post (AP) 10/25/01
Wednesday October 24
REGIONAL
MUSEUM CRISIS: While London's museum scene is flourishing,
regional museums are struggling. A government commission studying
the problem says £270 million over five years is required to rescue
the regionals. 'The task force has spent nine months interviewing
regional directors heartbroken at the state of their museums,
and visiting poorly lit galleries with outdated displays or the
leaking stores that hold 95% of regional collections."
The Guardian (UK) 10/24/01
- MONEY
IS CRUCIAL: “If we carry on like this, more museums will
have to close, collections will have to move This position is
now critical.” The Times (UK) 10/24/01
- PROBLEMS FOR
BRISTOL MUSEUMS STAFF: "A roof that leaks into a gallery
containing works by Monet and Renoir... backlog of maintenance
work... fabric coming off the walls... only 10 per cent of [1.75
million items] on regular display... only one natural history
curator to care for more than 600,000 items." The
Times (UK) 10/24/01
BUILDING
ON UNCONVENTION: The Smithsonian hopes soon to name a new
director for the Hirshhorn Museum. He won't be like the old one,
a former social studies teacher who had no degrees in art, a man
who lunched on Snickers bars and wore rumpled clothes. And that's
too bad, because James Demetrion made the Hirshhorn what it is
today. Washington Post 10/24/01
SHRINKING
ART MARKET: Art dealers worry that the demand for buying art
is down. "As perceptions of risk and questions about the
need for liquid assets increase, the demand for art might be temporarily
reduced. In addition, the huge drop in the stock market this year
certainly has reduced the wealth of many potential buyers."
The Art Newspaper 10/22/01
MORE
CALDER UNCOVERED: Nearly half of Alexander Calder's WTC stabile
has been found, which was "easier than it sounds. The metal
is about a half-inch thick, and no other major structural element
of the World Trade Center has the same dimensions. Also, the bolt-holes
that run in a zigzag pattern along the edges of the sculpture
make the pieces relatively easy to pick out." NPR 10/22/01
- Previously:
CALDER
UNBURIED: Pieces of Alexander Calder's giant stabile at
the World Trade Center (worth $2.5 million) have been discovered
under the buildings' wreckage. The first piece of Bent Propeller
a bright red, 25-foot-high, 15-ton sculpture by Philadelphia-born
artist Alexander Calder, was removed from the wreckage last
Thursday." New York Post 10/17/01
HANGERS
ON: In late 18th Century England, the annual summer exhibition
at the Royal Academy was the place for an artist's work
to be seen. But the particular lighting at the RA and the system
of hanging paintings had a major influence on how artists painted.
"British artists worked in the knowledge that their pictures
would be seen under the specific conditions that prevailed at
Somerset House. Unless you understand the hanging system at the
Royal Academy, you don't understand how desperate artists were
to grab the visitor's attention with dramatic or topical subjects,
bright colours, and inventive compositions."
The Telegraph (UK) 10/24/01
HOWARD
FINSTER, 84: One of the most well-known outsider artists has
died. "Finster was considered a pioneer among self-taught
artists, advancing the 'outsider' movement with his unique personality,
unflagging salesmanship and resolute work ethic. For more than
three decades, he traveled Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee preaching
at tent revivals and supplementing his income with odd jobs, including
plumbing and bicycle repair." MSNBC
(AP) 10/23/01
Tuesday October 23
PRIVATIZING
ITALY'S MUSEUMS? Italy's new right wing government has plans
to privatize the country's museums, including the Ufizzi. The
plan assumes that private operators would make a profit, some
of which they would pay to the government. Concerned directors
from around the world from 37 leading museums - including Philippe
de Montebello of the Metropolitan Museum, New York, Thomas Krens
of the Guggenheim, New York, Henri Loyrette of the Louvre, Paris
and Neil Macgregor of the National Gallery, London have written
a letter to the Italian government appealing for it 'to discuss
this proposal widely both at home, and to move with due deliberation
before transferring the running of the museums to private enterprise'."
The Art Newspaper 10/22/01
GEHRY
EXPANSION APPROVED IN D.C.: The Corcoran Gallery in Washington,
D.C. has approved a scaled-back design by architect Frank Gehry
for the gallery's renovation and expansion. Gehry's original proposal
was approved two years ago, but cost overruns caused the gallery
to ask for a second design. Chicago
Tribune 10/23/01
THIS
YEAR'S ENDANGERED LIST: The World Monuments Fund (WMF) has
announced its 2002 World Monuments Watch List of 100 Most Endangered
Sites. The list is intended to draw attention to world historical
sites that are in danger. "In an unprecedented move, the
organisation notched the list up to 101 sites with the addition
of Historic Lower Manhattan" as some of the area's historic
landmarks were damaged in the September 11 attack.
The Art Newspaper 10/22/01
Monday October 22
WILL
SELL ART FOR FOOD: Britain's museums have a lamentable record
of selling national art treasures when they need to raise money.
"Now a foundation in London has decided to defy this trend
and sell works worth up to £3 million to finance a new home for
its collection."
The Telegraph (UK) 10/22/01
MAKING
OUT IN MUSEUMS: A new study says that 20 percent of Italians
going to museums have had an erotic experience there. "According
to the study, a Caravaggio painting or a Greek sculpture is more
likely to lead to sex than works by Tiepolo or Veronese. The experts
have even compiled a hit parade of Italian museums, listing the
institutions in order of their ability to awaken Eros." ARTNews
10/01
THE
UTILITY OF ART: What turns a ceramic pot or plate into a work
of art? What transforms a utilitarian object into something artistic?
The Guardian (UK) 10/21/01
Sunday October 21
FASHIONABLY
ARCHITECTURAL: Why have architects become today's hot artists?
"Today, international fashion magazines relentlessly plug
the latest architectural enfant terrible, fashion houses seek
out architects for their avant-garde credentials, and the architectural
profession in general has an energy and cachet that must make
even the most successful haut couture designer green with envy.
Who would have thought that architecture and fashion would ever
make such cozy companions?" Los
Angeles Times 10/21/01
REBELLING
AGAINST ROYAL'S RODINS: The Royal Ontario Museum was planning
a big international Rodin symposium coinciding with the controversial
Rodin sculpture show the museum is currently hosting. But while
"last month the ROM mailed dozens of letters to Rodin scholars
and buffs around the world, inviting them to the Ontario capital
to weigh in on the legacy of the sculptor," almost no one
has agreed to come. The Globe &
Mail (Canada) 10/20/01
THE
SCIENCE OF IMAGES: "To many of us who are not in the
sciences, pictures like the Hubble images or the Visual Human
Project have seemed like the last refuge of photographic 'truth'
in the current flood of image doubts." But even scientific
images, often depended upon as a way of solving problems, may
not be so purely truthful in the digital age. The
New York Times 10/21/01 (one-time
registration required for access)
ART
AFTER WAR: "In the aftermath of the Sept. 11 catastrophes
and the subsequent anthrax attacks, some Americans have responded
by making art. Much of it is impromptu and transitory, driven
by an impulse to eulogize the missing, the murdered and the heroic.
New York City is the epicenter of this effusion, as it should
be." Philadelphia Inquirer 10/21/01
PUTTING
MILWAUKEE ON THE MAP: The Milwaukee Art Museum opened its
big new addition last week. It is "the bird that puts Milwaukee
on the map - an enormous moveable sunshade that constitutes the
most dramatic feature of Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava's
stunning addition to the Milwaukee Art Museum. To watch this kinetic
sculpture unfold, to see its white steel fins rise from a steeply
pitched, glass-walled reception hall and then turn into a pair
of softly curving arcs that suggest a bird taking flight, is to
witness a thing of pure, exhilarating joy." Chicago
Tribune 10/21/01
Friday October 19
ANSEL
ADAMS CENTER CLOSING: The Friends of Photography, founded
by Adams, is folding because of debt. "The center's collection
of 140 Ansel Adams photographs printed by Adams in the 1970s expressly
for the Friends will be sold, and the proceeds will go to erasing
the debt." San Francisco Chronicle
10/18/01
MUSEUM
DOMAIN: The new web domain address .museum should be working
by November. The domain is reserved only for museums, and "will
provide a home on the Internet for those who work to make our
museums such great cultural assets." CNet
(Reuters) 10/18/01
THE
ART OF CLEANING: A cleaner picking up a London gallery, mistakenly
gathered up and threw out an installation by Damien Hirst. He
"came across a pile of beer bottles, coffee cups and overflowing
ashtrays and cleared them away at the Eyestorm Gallery on Wednesday
morning." BBC 10/19/01
WHEN
DESIGN OVERTAKES ART: Hard to find anyone who isn't ready
to anoint Frank Gehry as a master artist. "Why all the hoopla?
Is this designer of metallic museums and curvy concert halls,
luxury houses and flashy corporate headquarters truly Our Greatest
Living Artist? The notion is telling, for it points to the new
centrality of architecture in cultural discourse. This centrality
stems from the initial debates about postmodernism in the 1970s,
which were focused on architecture, but it is clinched by the
contemporary inflation of design and display in all sorts of spheres:
art, fashion, business and so on."
Los Angeles Times 10/14/01
QUEEN
TO AUSTRALIA - IT'S MY PAINTING: It's Australia's centennial
this year, and Victoria's premier wrote to Queen Elizabeth asking
her to give Tom Roberts' historic painting, The Big Picture,
back to Australia. The painting commemorates the opening of Australia's
first parliament in 1901. But the Queen turned down the request,
saying "the painting was given to her great-grandfather and
giving it back 'would not seem to be appropriate'."
The Advertiser (Australia)
10/19/01
BERLIN
AS URBAN REBUILD: If New York is looking to rebuild its skyline,
perhaps it ought to look to Berlin. "The infinitely resilient
burghers of Berlin have been doing so for more than half a century,
starting in the aftermath of World War II and then starting over
again following the collapse of the Wall and the regimes that
built and backed it. Rarely in modern times have there been reconstruction
projects as far-reaching or lavishly funded as those of post-apocalyptic
Berlin, and never have they been so fraught with symbolism or,
in recent years, so wrought with soul-searching."
New York Review of Books 11/01/01
Thursday October 18
CALDER
UNBURIED: Pieces of Alexander Calder's giant stabile at the
World Trade Center (worth $2.5 million) have been discovered under
the buildings' wreckage. The first piece of Bent Propeller
a bright red, 25-foot-high, 15-ton sculpture by Philadelphia-born
artist Alexander Calder, was removed from the wreckage last Thursday."
New York Post 10/17/01
TREASURE
UNDER LONDON: Somewhere buried under The Strand in London
lies a city of broken Greek and Roman statues, altars and sarcophagi.
"These fractured deities and marble tablets are the last
undiscovered fragment of the collection amassed by the 14th Earl
of Arundel, the first Englishman to be bitten by 'Marble Mania'."
London Evening Standard 10/18/01
THE
SINKING OF VENICE: By studying 100 paintings by Canaletto,
researchers have determined how much the sea has risen in Venice
(or how much Venice has sunk, depending on your perspective).
"His works offer a record of where the high tide marks lay
during his life, from 1697 to 1768. Those show that the sea has
since risen by 80cm (31in) an average of 2.8mm (just over
an inch) every year." The Independent
(UK) 10/17/01
BRAZILIAN ALTAR
FINALLY REACHES THE GOOG: After intervention by priests, diplomats,
and politicians, a court injunction was lifted, and an ornate
18th-century gilded wooded altar will go on display at the New
York Gugenheim Museum tomorrow. A Brazilian court had blocked
shipment of the piece to New York after the September 11 terrorist
attack. The Art Newspaper 10/18/01
Wednesday October 17
GEHRY
DESIGN TO BE DEBATED: "Two years ago, after an intense,
highly publicized international competition, the Corcoran Gallery
and College of Art [in Washington, D.C.] anointed Frank O. Gehry
-- the most heralded architect of the late 20th century -- as
the designer of its ambitious new wing. Tomorrow, at a meeting
of the Fine Arts Commission, Gehry's unconventional concept will
face its first major test." Washington
Post 10/17/01
EGYPTIAN
ARTIFACTS UNEARTHED: "A Japanese team of archeologists
has discovered a number of statues of pharaonic gods and kings,
according to the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism. The statues in
Abu Sir, 21 miles south of Cairo, included one of the falcon-headed
god Horus as a headgear-wearing child with a finger in his mouth,
according to Gaballa Ali Gaballa, Egypt's antiquities chief. Also
unearthed were fragments of statues with hieroglyphic s dating
back to the time of King Pepi I in the 6th Dynasty."
Boston Globe (AP) 10/17/01
A
MUSEUM REPERTORY: "Strangely, the idea of repertory is
rarely discussed in relation to the art museum. Yet for anybody
who goes to the Metropolitan Museum of Art on a regular basis
and looks at El Greco's View of Toledo or Watteau's Mezzetin
or Bruegel's Harvesters or the Rembrandts or the Vermeers
the experience can be very much like going to Coppélia
or La Bohème or a Mozart piano concerto. You crave a known
experience and also want to see how your feelings about that experience
have changed. An opera or symphony can be interpreted in so many
different ways that it sometimes seems like an entirely new or
different work. A painting or sculpture also appears very different
at different times, depending on how it's presented, for presentation
is a form of interpretation." The
New Republic 10/16/01
REIMAGINING
LOWER MANHATTAN: A coalition of some of America's best architectural
firms have got together to envision a replacement for the World
Trade Center. "If nothing else, the terrorist attack demanded
that New York architects bring themselves up to speed on issues
of critical importance to any serious discussion of the city's
future. The international flow of currency and information. Access
to public, private, and cyber space. Architecture's roots in military
fortifications. The convergence of our own technology — tall buildings
and airplanes — in terrorist warfare. The nature of risk."
The New York Times 10/14/01
(one-time registration required for access)
Tuesday October 16
TOWERING
MEANING: Los Angeles' Watts Towers just reopened after a restoration
job that took 13 years. Restoration still doesn't mean anyone
knows what the towers mean. "Depending on whom you talk to,
they are the most sacred of relics or the most profane. In short,
they have become the ideal blank canvas on which people can project
whatever aesthetic, social or ethical statement they like, Disneyland
contrivances or profound utterances from the collective unconscious."
The New York Times 10/16/01
(one-time registration required
for access)
PAYING
OFF ON ART: "If you had started collecting contemporary
British art a decade ago, when the YBAs were fresh out of college,
your collection, amassed for a few thousand, could now be worth
millions. Some collections were started for only a crown or two
- Damien Hirst and Tracey Emin's dentist accepted art in lieu
of payment for dental work they had done."
London Evening Standard 10/16/01
THE
SHOPPING MALL CHALLENGE: Daniel Libeskind is one of today's
hottest architects. His Jewish Museum in Berlin just opened to
acclaim. "But he has no desire to be pigeonholed as an architect
for 'difficult' projects. He believes that his approach is equally
valid for more everyday buildings and to prove it is designing
a new shopping centre on the edge of Berne in Switzerland. It
is a project that has shocked some Libeskind fans, but the architect
is unrepentant." The
Telegraph (UK) 10/16/01
CHEATING
ON ART: "The narrative of Western art since the Renaissance
might have appeared to have been fairly well mapped out - although
the attribution of a picture might be disputed here, the meaning
of an image challenged there. Now along comes David Hockney -
not even an academic, but a practising artist - and suggests that
some old masters as early as the 15th century were employing a
form of proto-photography as an aid to painting."
The Telegraph (UK) 10/16/01
MAKING
MODERN MATTER: When Nicholas Serota became director of the
Tate, contemporary art was seen as a problem in England. "Serota's
efforts have transformed us into a nation that cares about contemporary
art, and it is one of his proudest achievements." London
Evening Standard 10/16/01
THE
DIRECTOR COMPLAINS: When Australia's National Gallery director
Dr Brian Kennedy appointed John McDonald as head of the museum's
Australian Art, it was a controversial decision. But a few months
after the September 2000 appointment, Kennedy regretted the appointment.
He outlined his grievances in a five-page memo... Sydney
Morning Herald 10/16/01
ARCHIVED AFGHANI
ART: The Taliban have systematically destroyed the art and
culture of Afghanistan over the past seven years. The Art Newspaper
chronicled the destruction in a series of articles, now archived
online. The Art Newspaper 10/16/01
Monday October 15
BRITISH
MUSEUM RETURNS STATUE: A man offered to sell the British Museum
a stolen ancient Egyptian statue. Instead of buying it, the museum
took it and returned it to Egypt after turning the man over to
Scotland Yard. The
Times (UK) 10/15/01
HERMITAGE
- PLANS FOR WORLD DOMINATION: "Although the Hermitage
welcomed about 2.4 million visitors last year, the administration
is dissatisfied even with this impressive figure and is looking
for ways to reach a wider audience. Last fall, Somerset House
in London became home to the Hermitage Rooms. Last summer, the
museum joined forces with the New York Guggenheim Foundation to
bring more contemporary art to the Hermitage, as well as to hold
joint exhibitions with museums around the world. One of these,
the Hermitage Guggenheim Museum in Las Vegas, opened earlier this
month. In the meantime, the museum is preparing to open another
exhibition center in Amsterdam." St.
Petersburg Times (Russia) 10/12/01
ALL
ABOUT THE AESTHETICS: The Cleveland Museum of Art got its
first look at what might be expected from the architect they've
hired to oversee a massive renovation and expansion, and Rafael
Vinoly promised something unlike anything they have seen before.
The designer behind, among other buildings, the Tokyo Forum, Vinoly
"can create quiet poetry in earth-hugging buildings that
seem to melt into the landscape." The
Plain Dealer (Cleveland) 10/15/01
FASHIONABLE
ART: "There has never been a time when fashion has done
more to suggest that it might be art. Fashion is parasitic. It
depends on other art forms for its imagery and its identity. And
it's been so successful at it that it has begun to replace them."
The Observer (UK) 10/14/01
SCOTTISH
ART WAR: "Glasgow's cash-strapped museums and galleries,
funded solely by the city, are the most visited museums outside
London. But there is resentment that Edinburgh's 'national' galleries
receive the lion's share of government support. Despite having
1m fewer visitors than Glasgow's museums, Edinburgh's have been
awarded £20 million in government grants." Sunday
Times (UK) 10/14/01
Sunday October 14
LOOKING
FOR THE EXCITING YOUNG ARCHITECTS: What is it about America
that it refuses to entrust important building projects to promising
young architects? Many European countries provide subsidies and
professional courtesies to the younger set, and the architecture
in these countries is more adventurous and wide-ranging as a result.
In the U.S., however, architects are practically geriatric before
they even begin to get called for high-profile jobs. Boston
Globe 10/14/01
BRING
ON THE NUDES: Conventional wisdom has long held that Victorian-era
Britons were, and there's no nice way to put this, fairly prudish.
Downright puritanical, in fact. Well, guess again: "As a
new exhibition at Tate Britain will demonstrate, the Victorian
era was one in which representations of the naked human form were
highly visible, endlessly reproduced, widely circulated and eagerly
consumed." The Daily Telegraph
(UK) 10/13/01
LO,
HOW A ROSE E'ER BLOOMING: "The discovery that the remains
of Shakespeare's Rose Theatre are in a reasonable condition has
led to calls for more to be spent on excavating the site... It
is the only Elizabethan theatre left in the world of which there
are substantial remains." BBC
10/14/01
Friday October 12
MAYBE
THE ART MARKET IS UP: A portrait by Gustav Klimt from the
late 1890's, "Portrait of a Lady in Red," drew heavy bidding from
both sides of the Atlantic, finally selling for $4 million, more
than twice its expected price. BBC
10/12/01
V&A'S
NEW MAN SPEAKS: The Victoria & Albert Museum in London
got a new director a few months back. Not that you would have
noticed, since Mark Jones likes to keep a low profile. But his
tastes and preferences for the future of the V&A are gradually
becoming known. "Mr Jones emerges as a an enthusiast for
the proposed extension by Daniel Libeskind known as the Spiral,
which has been hanging fire since 1995 for lack of funding. He
is also embarking on yet another major internal reorganisation."
The Art Newspaper 10/09/01
LAYOFFS
COMING AT AUCTION BIGS: "Bracing for a period of unpredictable
sales and revenue, Sotheby's and Christie's announced significant
layoffs in their worldwide staffs this week." The
New York Times 10/12/01 (one-time
registration required for access)
- A
QUIETER WAY TO SELL: "The Sept. 11 attack and its aftermath
are having an effect on the way some collectors are choosing
to sell their art... For years both Sotheby's and Christie's
have been quietly offering clients an alternative to auctions.
Acting like dealers, the auction houses use their international
contacts to offer art to collectors they think would be interested.
Also like dealers the auction houses collect a fee for making
the sale." The New York Times
10/12/01 (one-time registration
required for access)
THE
NEW WINGED MUSEUM IN MILWAUKEE: Sunday is the official opening
of wing-like steel sunshade which crowns the new addition to the
Milwaukee Art Museum. The whole project came in at around $100
million, and was the first US job by Spanish architect Santiago
Calatrava. It may come to define the city. If nothing else, it's
quadrupled attendance at the museum this year. Milwaukee
Journal-Sentinel 10/12/01
TOO
DIRTY FOR THE SUBWAY: "About 350 years after Sir Peter
Lely painted her, the Countess of Oxford is still a scandalous
woman. Although her bare breasted image adorns the poster, invitations
and catalogue cover of the exhibition Painted Ladies at the National
Portrait Gallery, she has been judged too extreme for London Underground."
The Guardian (UK) 10/11/01
NO,
HE WON'T BE WRAPPING HELMUT KOHL: "Six years after conquering
Berlin by wrapping the Reichstag, Bulgarian-born artist Christo
and his French wife, Jeanne-Claude, return to the city for two
shows, one big, one small." The
Art Newspaper 10/09/01
Thursday October 11
KLIMT
DRAWINGS UP FOR GRABS: "The art auction world's favourite
fairy tale is the stranger who walks in off the street with an
unknown masterpiece tucked under his arm. It has happened at Christie's:
the stranger was carrying a portfolio of 17 drawings by Gustav
Klimt, never seen by anyone except the artist and the stranger's
grandfather who had purchased them." The collection will
be auctioned this week. The Guardian
(UK) 10/10/01
- HUGHES
COLLECTION ON THE BLOCK: Frederick Hughes is best known
as the business manager of the late Andy Warhol, but he was
also one of the world's foremost art collectors. His complete
collection is up for auction at Sotheby's New York, and is expected
to fetch upwards of $2 million. BBC
10/10/01
NEW
HEAD OF SCOTLAND MUSEUMS: Dr. Gordon Rintoul, who was chief
executive of Sheffield Galleries, has been appointed as the new
director of the National Museums of Scotland, effective February
2002. He succeeds Mark Jones, who left for the Victoria and Albert
in London. The Herald (Scotland) 10/11/01
Wednesday October 10
TRYING
TO SAVE A CULTURAL HERITAGE: The position of Afghanistan's
Taliban rulers on the place of art in their society was made abundantly
clear earlier this year with the destruction by rocket launcher
of the giant Bamiyan Buddhas carved into an Afghan mountainside.
As most of the world watched helpless, one man actually tried
to buy the Buddhas from the Taliban in an effort to preserve them.
His bid failed, but Ikuo Hirayama remains one of the world's foremost
advocates for Asian culture and art. The
Art Newspaper 10/08/01
THE
POEM, THE TEMPLE, THE PEOPLE: The temple at Angkor Wat incorporates
a poem which has never been translated into English, and never
before been the subject of academic study. Now it is being studied,
and translated; it's expected to reveal much about the history
and culture of the Khmer people, going back to the twelfth century.
Humanities (NEH) October 01
THE
ART OF DOCUMENTED HORROR: "Photojournalists, professionally
intimate with tragedy and its aftermath, have brought extraordinary
images back from the hell downtown. Thoughtful, tough, full of
feeling, and startlingly beautiful, their pictures have both fixed
and shaped our experience of an event that even those who lived
through it can't quite comprehend." Village
Voice 10/09/01
REMBRANDT'S
WOMEN: "Rembrandt's treatment of women - in paint, not
in the flesh, though that seems to have been dismal enough - sharply
divided his contemporaries. The debate proves that there is nothing
contemporary about the argument over body fascism and the cult
of the anorexic model." A new U.K. exhibition attempts to
make sense of the arguments on all sides. The
Guardian (UK) 10/09/01
SERRANO
COMES TO BRITAIN: The man whose art helped cause one of America's
most notorious political dogfights, Andres Serrano, is being exhibited
in London this month, and critics there are showing no mercy.
Free speech advocates in the U.S. championed Serrano's photography
when Congressional leaders used it as fodder for their crusade
against public arts funding, but in the opinions of several U.K.
writers, "he is a third-rate artist, a man who has nothing
interesting, important or original to say about the subjects he
treats." The Daily Telegraph
(UK) 10/10/01
Tuesday October 9
UK
DEALERS DOING JUST FINE: "Reports filed by the leading
113 fine art and antique companies in Great Britain for the 1999/2000
period paint a picture of healthy performance, with an average
growth of 9.3% in pre-tax profits and 3% in sales." The
Art Newspaper 10/08/01
BAD
TIMING FOR AMBITIOUS QUEBEC: Two days before it was to begin,
the most ambitious attempt ever to export Canadian culture to
the U.S. was scuttled by, well, you know. "In the wake of
the attack, virtually all of Quebec-New York 2001 was cancelled;
a massive undertaking that had been two years in planning fell
victim to ill-fated timing, dealing a body blow to the Quebec
government's scheme to raise its cultural profile in the United
States." The Globe & Mail
(Toronto) 10/09/01
NEW
HEADACHES FOR TRAVELING SHOWS: While dealers and collectors
consider the impact terrorism will have on art prices, exhibitors
face one clear-cut fact: It will be increasingly difficult and
expensive to organize traveling exhibitions. Owners will be reluctant
to loan their works, and handling, guarding, shipping, and insuring
art will all be more complex, time-consuming, and costly.
The Art Newspaper 10/09/01
HERB
BLOCK, 91: Herbert L. Block, whose "Herblock" signature marked
scathing political cartoons for more than 60 years, died in Washington.
He won three Pulitzer Prizes, and shared a fourth. For
more than 50 years, he was read - and often feared - at the
breakfast tables of the most powerful figures in American government,
but he never sought their favor or tried to be one of them.
Washington Post 10/08/01
IRISH
MUSEUM DIRECTOR TO NEW POST: "Declan Mcgonagle, who quit his
post as director of the Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA) last
April, is to take up a new position with the City Arts Centre
in Dublin from December 1st. Though he has as yet no job title,
he will head the centre as it begins a two-year process of redefinition
and revitalisation." The Irish Times
10/08/01
Monday October 8
BRITISH
MUSEUM WOES: "Britain's most famous museum has fallen
victim to the ambiguous benefits of lottery capital grants, which
allow expansion, but do not fund the running costs. Donors like
to be associated with excellence, so perhaps it is not surprising
that the British Museum managed to raise the money for the Great
Court. But it is harder to raise money for running costs. Thus
the museum found itself with a building it can no longer afford
to run." The Independent (UK)
10/07/01
THE
GREAT DIRECTOR SEARCH: The National Museum of Scotland has
been looking for a new director for eight months. It's a prestigious
post but not much progress has been made in the search. "Insiders
say they are deeply concerned at the length of time the process
is taking and are worried about the future direction of the museums
without a permanent director at the helm." Scotland
on Sunday 10/07/01
MUSEUM
ATTENDANCE WORRIES: Museum attendance in the US is down after
September 11, in some cases dramatically down. "Some museums
are beginning to rebound, but many smaller ones in lower Manhattan
near the World Trade Center site had to close their doors for
several weeks and may need years to recover, administrators say.
Museums also expect that donors will divert contributions from
cultural institutions to relief efforts. And as they survey the
damage the museums are struggling to come up with ways to recoup."
The New York Times 10/08/01
(one-time registration required
for access)
ART
MARKET CHALLENGE: Recession, war - is this the double whammy
on the art business? "There is no evidence to suggest that
the art market is about to collapse. Most dealers say that business
may not be booming but could be worse, and the old adage that
it is one of the last sectors to be affected by recession (but
also one of the last to recover) seems to be holding true. This
is not, however, to suggest that all is well." The
Telegraph (UK) 10/08/01
AUCTION
HOUSE TO CUT JOBS: Sotheby's is said to be cutting as many
as 200 jobs in a major restructuring. "It is thought there
will be cuts in the internet venture, sotheby's.com; at Billingshurst,
Sotheby's countryside middle-market saleroom in the UK , and among
administrative staff. The auction house's Chicago office has been
drastically trimmed and sales will no longer be held there."
The Art Newspaper 10/08/01
MUSEUM
FOR EVERYTHING: These days there's a museum for everything
- trash, spam, hubcaps, toasters... "Wacky museums appeal
because they 'present the world around us in ways that are unexpected.
The 'stuff' on display is secondary." Newsweek
10/15/01
Sunday October 7
MUSEUM
DISTRICT: Washington DC is building. "A museum boom is
under way in our nation's capital. At least seven major institutions
will be opening in the next few years, adding to the 91 loosely
defined museums already in the district (that figure includes
the Squished Penny Museum, for example, whose holdings are worth
about $30)." Christian Science
Monitor 10/05/01
BRITS
ON DISPLAY: "In the next two months, the Victoria & Albert
Museum and Tate Britain will open great new Lottery projects devoted
entirely to showing off their huge British holdings to best advantage.
With royal fanfares, spanking new sets of galleries will be unveiled
to the public at both institutions. More paintings on more walls,
more objects in more cases and flashes of good modern architecture
combined with pastiche and restoration will make the "visitor
experience" a good deal better and should make the story of British
art more completely told than ever before." The
Telegraph (UK) 10/06/01
ART
IN THE POP JUNGLE: The new Guggenheim/Hermitage museums open
in Las Vegas. "They offer a compelling view of contrasting
styles. Both buildings challenge preconceived notions about the
role of art in a landscape of pop culture. Both projects reignite
old questions about the relationship between architecture and
art. In addition, each architect represents wildly different sensibilities.
While Frank Gehry's work is intuitive, Rem Koolhaas' is more cerebral.
The fact that this creative friction has not produced architecture
of lasting importance may be beyond the point in a city that is
continuously picking up and disposing of the latest trends."
Los Angeles Times 10/06/01
- MEET
GUGGENVEGAS: "These are art museums designed for the
tourist trade, pure and simple. They're another roadside attraction.
I say this without derision and only with an eye toward honest
identification of what has arisen on the Strip. In fact, I'm
here to help. In a place where one talks of going to Siegfried
& Roy or Mandalay Bay, no tourist destination will survive for
long with a long marbles-in-the-mouth name like the Guggenheim
Las Vegas and Guggenheim Hermitage Museum. The places need a
sobriquet or handle. I nominate GuggenVegas." Los
Angeles Times 10/06/01
- BETTING
ON ART: Will Las Vegas gamblers pay $15 to see art in Las
Vegas? The newly opened Guggenheim/Hermitage museums believe
they will. ''You see all types here, from grungy to elegant.
Think about it. You have people who've never seen a real work
of art, people who will never go to Russia, people who may never
get to New York.'' Boston Globe
10/06/01
OUT
OF TEXAS: The architects chosen as finalists to design Dallas'
new opera house are all stars from Europe. Why no Texans? "The
tricky part is that Dallas' best designers typically work in small
firms that focus on residential and modest commercial projects.
An opera house represents an incredible esthetic and technical
leap for most architects, let alone those who spend their time
on townhouses and shopping centers. A major theater seems more
manageable, though it too requires a level of experience and sophistication
that is still in short supply around here." Dallas
Morning News 10/06/01
WOMEN'S
MUSEUM DIRECTOR SUDDENLY QUITS: After only three months on
the job as director of the National Museum of Women in Washington
DC, Ellen D. Reeder has suddenly resigned. "The first scholar
of international stature to direct the museum, Reeder brought
with her the promise of an intellectual heft some felt the museum
had always lacked. The museum has had frequent turnover: six directors
in the 14 years since it was founded." Washington
Post 10/06/01
CONFRONTING
THE BEAUTY OF ISLAM: "Several exhibitions of Islamic
material are on view in New York this fall. And all of them arrive
in the wake of violence that has given the very word Islam a volatile,
negative edge." The New York
Times 10/07/01 (one-time registration
required for access)
Friday October 5
THE
POLITICS OF BUYING ART: Berlin's National Gallery recently
announced an agreement to purchase one of Europe's most important
collections of concept art, land art, minimal art and arte povera.
But the deal was announced before all the money was in place.
And there are still some politics to finesse. But announcing the
purchase in this way, the museum hopes "to set in motion
an irresistible snowball effect. The whole acquisition process
seems to have been engineered according to this principle of self-reinforcing
attraction." Frankfurter Allgemeine
Zeitung 10/05/01
THE
GOOG HITS VEGAS: The latest Guggenheim Museum opens - in Las
Vegas. It stays open until 11 a night to accomodate the gamblers.
"At first familiar names will dominate, but the aim is to
present contemporary painting, sculpture, architectural design
and multi-media art in the building. The design is spectacular,
as it has to be to compete in a city which has cheerfully recreated
the pyramids, Paris and, poignantly in the light of recent events,
a New York skyline which for design reasons did not include the
twin towers of the World Trade Centre." The
Guardian (UK) 10/05/01
A
CRACKLE BEHIND THE EARS: A team of researchers "at the
University of Wales, Bangor, and the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, Boston, has identified an area of the human brain
that responds specifically when people view images of the human
body." Evidently "a glimpse of a torso triggers a crackle
of activity in a region of the brain behind the ears." The
Telegraph (UK) 10/05/01
Thursday October 4
KEEPING
UP WITH THE JONESES: The world has been on a museum-building
binge, with billions of dollars spent on erecting new museums.
What has sparked all the building? "The economic prosperity
of the 1990s and the desire to be at the forefront of architectural
innovation" are two of the biggest reasons. ARTNews
10/01
AN
OLDER ART (BY FAR): Testing of prehistoric paintings made
30,000 years ago in French caves may force a rethinking of the
history of the development of art. "Because the paintings
are just as artistic and complex as the later Lascaux paintings
[dating to 17,000 years ago], it may indicate that art developed
much earlier than had been realised." BBC
10/04/01
Wednesday October 3
BRITISH
MUSEUM CUTS: The British Museum says it is considering "cutting
opening hours, closing galleries and reducing exhibitions to save
£3m a year to balance its books." The museum blames
cutbacks in government funding. The
Independent (UK) 10/02/01
BM
PENALIZED: "The museum has shelved a £80m study centre
to show some of the 4 million objects in its vast collections
that visitors never see. Despite a 50% rise in the museum's British
visitors this year, the museum's annual grant had effectively
been cut by £10m." The Guardian
(UK) 10/03/01
- DYSFUNCTIONAL
CREDIBILITY: Norman Rockwell's Americana has made him easy
to dismiss as a "mere" illustrator. But a biography
"has turned up the sorry details of the longtime Saturday
Evening Post illustrator's personal battles with depression
and the alleged suicides of his first two wives. In the upside-down
world of art criticism, such exposure seems to be a prerequisite
to regarding the painter as more than a two-dimensional workaholic
patriot." Washington Monthly
10/01
HOLOCAUST
MUSEUM BURNS: El Paso's Holocaust Museum burned Tuesday morning
in an electrical fire. "No one was injured but the fire caused
about $200,000 in damage to the building."
USAToday 10/03/01
MADONNA
TO PRESENT TURNER: Any doubts visual art (and artists) are
London's new celebrities? How about Madonna presenting this year's
Turner Prize. The pop star has been involved with the Tate in
the past year, agreeing to loan a Frida Kahlo to the museum for
a show. BBC 10/03/01
MUSEUM
ATTENDANCE DOWN: Across the US, attendance at museums is substantially
down in the weeks since September 11. "The American Association
of Museums acknowledged that times will be tough because of the
industry's direct link to travel and tourism." Los
Angeles Times (AP) 10/02/01
- CHICAGO
LAYOFFS: Chicago's Shedd Aquarium says it will lay off 44
full-time employees - 16 percent of its staff of 267 - because
of "declining attendance, a months-long trend that worsened
after the terrorist attacks on the East Coast."
Chicago Tribune 10/02/01
Tuesday
October 2
TATE
DOWN: Since the Tate Modern opened last year, the original
Tate building(reopened as Tate Britain) has suffered for visitors.
Attendance in the first year was down by 500,000, a loss of a
third of its visitors. "The glamorous new Tate Modern seemed
to be getting all the attention, a pneumatic trophy wife banishing
her dependable, all-too familiar predecessor to shrivelling neglect."
The Observer (UK) 09/30/01
LIFE WITHOUT
BIG BROTHER: At least 300 of Russia's museums are planning
to form a non-governmental, non-commercial union to help each
other, "especially regarding questions such as fund raising
and merchandising, to which many are still new." The Russian
Ministry of Culture no longer is able to support many of the activities
which were funded during the Soviet era. St.
Petersburg Times 10/02/01
RATING
RODIN: Controversy over whether the 70 sculptures in a Toronto
museum show are "authentic" Rodins or not has been swirling
for months. "Invective has been flying across the Atlantic
for weeks, but the issue isn't fakes versus originals. Given that
'original' Rodins are cast, what exactly is an authentic Rodin?
Who gets to decide? Rodin himself, as much entrepreneur as sculptor,
does not make the task any easier." The
Guardian (UK) 10/02/01
BIG LEAGUE COSTS:
The luxury-goods company LVMH appears to be paying heavily for
its adventure in the top echelon of the arts market. LVMH bought
the auction house Phillips in 1999 for about $112 million, and
spent tens of millions more to polish its image. "These sums
pale, however, beside Phillips’s strategy to attract high-value
consignments and move the company up towards the big two auction
houses." The Art Newspaper 10/02/01
ITALIAN
TOWN HELPS REBUILD NEW YORK CHURCH: One of the smallest architectural
victims of September 11 was St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church,
which stood across the street from ground zero. Parishioners are
raising money to rebuild, and already have a half-million dollar
head start - a surprise donation from the town of Bari, Italy.
St. Nicholas was the patron saint of Bari. NPR [audio file] 01/10/01
MAYBE
OTHER STOLEN PAINTINGS: Miami's Vizcaya Museum is returning
a painting found to have been stolen by Nazis from a Polish museum.
That may not be all. "We have so little history on some of
these things that I just have to think there will be more claims,"
says the museum director. Images of other paintings from the same
donor will be posted on the Internet. Los Angeles Times 10/01/01
- Previously: STOLEN
PAINTING TO BE RETURNED: A 500-year-old painting stolen
out of Poland's National Museum by the Nazis is to be returned
by a Miami museum. "The painting is one of 35 works donated
to Miami-Dade County in 1980 by Claire Mendel, the German consul
in Miami from 1958 to 1970. He died in Miami in 1987."
Nando Times (AP) 09/30/01
Monday
October 1
FLORENCE
STRIVES TO DO BETTER: The Florence Biennale isn't a major
player in the world of biennales. "Despite being within strolling
distance of some of the world's greatest art museums, in the city
that was at the heart of the Renaissance, the last Florence Biennale
(in 1999) attracted just 15,000 visitors." This year the
biennial is striving for bigger things. "If the Biennale
wants to regain the prestige that it once enjoyed, it will have
to improve the quality and broaden the range of its pictures."
The Telegraph (UK) 10/01/01
BRITAIN'S
CULTURAL REVOLUTION: "The most significant event in the
history of art in Britain was the Reformation, and the waves of
staggeringly violent native iconoclasm set off by it. The destruction
wrought on the artistic heritage of this country when it turned
on its own Catholicism was nuclear in scale and ferocity. Every
cathedral, church, chapel, cemetery, wayside shrine and village
cross in England and Wales was affected. A thousand years of artistic
evolution, the sum total of Britain's cultural history so far,
was attacked by rioting mobs of religious maniacs, while the rest
of the country cheered them on." Sunday
Times 09/30/01
ART
BENEFIT: New York artists plan a big benefit for victims of
September 11. "So far, plans call for a joint live auction
held by Sotheby's, Phillips de Pury & Luxembourg, Doyle New York,
Guernsey's, Swann and Leland that will take place in the afternoon
at the premises of one of the auction houses in New York. In the
evening, there will be a New York Thanks You concert at
Carnegie Hall for the mayor and all the rescue workers involved
in the post-attack effort." Forbes.com
09/26/01
STOLEN
PAINTING TO BE RETURNED: A 500-year-old painting stolen out
of Poland's National Museum by the Nazis is to be returned by
a Miami museum. "The painting is one of 35 works donated
to Miami-Dade County in 1980 by Claire Mendel, the German consul
in Miami from 1958 to 1970. He died in Miami in 1987." Nando
Times (AP) 09/30/01
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