Archives for February 2008

An early model of Frank Gehry's planned Guggenheim Abu Dhabi A kinder, gentler assessment of Tom Krens' reign at the Guggenheim is provided today by James Russell of Bloomberg. Russell has approving words for the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi (and the rest of the proposed development in the Saadiyat Island Cultural District) and also praises what Krens did in New York: Before Krens, the … [Read more...] about More on Tom Krens from James Russell (and me) UPDATED

Broad-ly Speaking at LACMA More Eli Broad criticism occurs in Martin Filler's brilliantly titled piece for the latest New York Review of Books (Mar. 20), Broad-Minded Museum. (Why didn't my editors think of that?) A key passage: The Los Angeles County Museum of Art receives substantial public funds and many of its staff members are civil service employees of Los Angeles County. … [Read more...] about More on Eli Broad from Martin Filler (and me)

Look familiar? Here are two works from Anthony d'Offay's collection, which have twins in Eli Broad's collection: Damien Hirst, "Away from the Flock," 1995 © Damien Hirst Robert Therrien, "No Title (Table and Four Chairs)," 2003 © Robert Therrien / ARS, NY and DACS, London 2008 Their collections may have similarities, but you can't have much more of a contrast between art … [Read more...] about D’Offay Offs Broad: Parading a Different “Paradigm”

Thomas Krens Here's what I said today on WNYC, as well as a few additional comments: I have no idea if he wants it, but, as I said on the radio, I think Michael Govan of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art would be the ideal next director of the Guggenheim. True, he's been at his current post for less than two years, but job-hopping is not unheard of in the museum world. My … [Read more...] about My WNYC Krens Commentary and Where the Guggenheim Should Go From Here

UPDATE: Why did they make me get up SO EARLY? Now I'm scheduled to be on at about 8:35 a.m....subject, of course, to change. By then I should be completely caffeinated. Late notice to you, because it was late notice to me: If all goes according to plan, I'll be on New York Public Radio (WNYC) today (Thursday) after 7 a.m., commenting on the imminent departure of Thomas Krens … [Read more...] about UPDATED: CultureGrrl on Krens Today on New York Public Radio

I'll have more to say on the announcement of Tom Krens' imminent departure from the Guggenheim later. For the details, see Carol Vogel's piece for tomorrow's NY Times, online now. For now, just this: You might think Krens was a bit of a con artist, who tried to realize his improbable schemes by latching on to a succession of moguls and foreign government officials with more … [Read more...] about Tom Krens, Global Impresario, to Leave the Guggenheim

Francis Bacon, "Study of a Nude with Figure in a Mirror," 1969 Sotheby's had a lot riding on today's London evening sale of contemporary art, which its president and CEO, Bill Ruprecht, said yesterday would be an important art-market indicator. I don't yet have all the official press-released information, but it seems clear that the "indicator" is upbeat. Estimated to fetch a … [Read more...] about Sotheby’s Contemporary Success and More on Guarantees

A few tidbits on some stories that we've been following: ---A Save the Mount emergency campaign has been launched to try to undo the financial damage caused by wishful thinking about fundraising for the admirable (and still unfinished) restoration and library acquisition at author Edith Wharton's former mansion and gardens in Massachusetts' Berkshire Mountains. They say they … [Read more...] about Updates: Edith Wharton, Curtis Wong, NY Philharmonic in N. Korea

Is this really possible? What Elisabetta Povoledo reported yesterday in the NY Times, regarding the odyssey of rare sixth-century B.C. marble sculptures previously owned by Maurice Tempelsman, former swain of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, sure sounds to me like a dubious application of the fractional gift technique, which allows collectors to spread tax deductions over several … [Read more...] about University Promptly Returns to Italy What Tempelsman Donated

In prepared remarks for quarterly conference calls with stock analysts, Sotheby's usually closely tracks the language of its earnings press release and then fields questions. But today, while discussing the 2007 totals, which it called "the best financial results...in its 264-year history," Sotheby's digressed from its earnings press release to tackle the elephant in the … [Read more...] about Sotheby’s Addresses Concerns Over Guarantees While Reporting Bullish 2007 Results

Allan Gerson (Part I is here.) Reasonable people can disagree about whether London's Royal Academy should exhibit works confiscated by the state after the Russian Revolution from private collectors Sergei Shchukin and Ivan Morozov. To me, it's a no-brainer: We want these great masterpieces to be seen by a wide public. Others, however, feel this makes the Royal Academy complicit … [Read more...] about NY Times Roils Cultural Property Experts With Two Problematic Op-Eds—Part II

As I scurried yesterday through the empty halls of the closed-on-Monday Metropolitan Museum to get to the press preview of the extraordinary Courbet show (opening tomorrow), I was stopped short by an unusually prominent red object label: "Four Major Loans From the Republic of Italy" When the Met received three objects from Italy last month (including the Greek terracotta … [Read more...] about New at the Met: Italian Loans Prominently Labeled

Machu Picchu Whenever I've written Op-Ed pieces for the NY Times, the editors have always been annoyingly meticulous about double-checking to make sure that all my facts were, in fact, factual. Such caution is not only justified but essential when running strongly opinionated essays by outside contributors who have axes to grind. So how did not one but two pieces on hot-button … [Read more...] about NY Times Roils Cultural Property Experts With Two Problematic Op-Eds—Part I

Curtis Wong Here's an example of something I can do on a blog that's too irresponsible to do in a mainstream media piece----plug a project that I know absolutely nothing about. Arguably, I shouldn't do that on a blog either, but the pedigree of this venture, whatever it is, has rendered me reckless. Curtis Wong (above), who manages the Next Media Research group at Microsoft, is … [Read more...] about Curtis Wong’s Mystery Art/Tech Project

Edith Wharton's library at The Mount CultureGrrl readers may remember the above photo from my visit to Edith Wharton's Berkshire home, The Mount, where she penned her first popular success, "The House of Mirth." In my Oct. 3, 2006 Wall Street Journal article about the restoration of The Mount and its acquisition of 2,600 books from Wharton's own library, I discussed the … [Read more...] about Edith Wharton Cliffhanger: No Mirth at the Home of “House of Mirth”