Archives for February 2011

Geoffrey Rush, the King's coachWhen I viewed the film that was yesterday's big Oscar winner, The King's Speech, it had immediately brought to mind my own professional encounters with a stutterer---an important museum director, whom I first interviewed by phone many years ago, when he was a curator and was I a cub reporter.While I lobbed him some softball questions, our … [Read more...] about The Museum Director’s Speech: Stuttering Vanquished

Smithsonian Secretary G. Wayne Clough The National Portrait Gallery's controversial gay-themed show---Hide/Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture---closed on Feb. 13 as scheduled, not prematurely as museum officials had feared after the exhibition attracted the wrath of William Donohue, president of the Catholic League, and two powerful Congressional … [Read more...] about “Hide/Seek” Fallout: Interference Institutionalized at the Smithsonian

De Morgans storage facility at DahshurPhoto from Blue Shield's report on Egyptian archaeological sitesWhile Egyptian Minister of Antiquities Zahi Hawass now indicates that we still may not know the full extent of the losses from the Egyptian Museum (where, he says, a "complete inventory is still underway"), we at least now have an independent (if incomplete) third-party report … [Read more...] about Blue Shield Issues Independent Report on Antiquities Situation in Egypt

George Bellows, "Men of the Docks," 1912 Now that the University of Iowa's Pollock has been rescued from those who wanted to sell it, could this be the start of a happy trend? It's taken me a while to get to this, but on Feb. 10, Liz Barry of the Lynchburg, VA, News & Advance reported: More than two years after Randolph College sold [my link, not hers] "The … [Read more...] about Deaccession Redirection: Can Randolph College and Brandeis University Emulate Iowa?

Read it and cheer!First, Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad stated in a news conference that he believed that selling the University of Iowa's great Pollock "Mural" would chill donations.Then the state legislator who had been the prime mover for the sale, Rep. Scott Raecker, decided to back off, in light of the strong controversy his proposal had engendered.Are we going to have to … [Read more...] about News Flash: Iowa Legislators Drop Quest to Sell University’s Pollock

Now you can! They reopened yesterday.Lindsey Parietti of Reuters reports: For a written account from Reuters, go here. … [Read more...] about Adventure Tourists: Wanna Visit the Very Uncrowded Egyptian Museum and Pyramids?

Iowa Attorney General Tom MillerIt doesn't get more forceful than this:The American Association of Museums has just announced that it will rescind its accreditation of the University of Iowa Museum of Art if certain state legislators succeed in their attempt to compel the sale of the museum's important Pollock "Mural" to fund student scholarships. Below is AAM's letter in full. … [Read more...] about University of Iowa Museum Will Lose AAM Accreditation If Pollock Sold

It's not just the likely Fiscal 2012 budget reductions for the arts that we have to worry about. Because a budget for the current fiscal year was never adopted by Congress, the Federal Government has been operating under a continuing resolution this year (based on appropriations for Fiscal 2010). But a Fiscal 2011 budget for the remainder of this fiscal year (to Sept. 30) is … [Read more...] about Congress Watch: Federal Arts Funding for the Current Fiscal Year Threatened

Mummy Mask of the Lady Ka-nefer-nefer, Egyptian, Dynasty 19 (1295-1186 BC), St. Louis Art MuseumThe St. Louis Art Museum filed a complaint on Tuesday in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri at St. Louis, in which it asks the court to declare that there is no proof that the museum's Ka-nefer-nefer mummy mask---long sought by Egypt's antiquities chief, Zahi … [Read more...] about St. Louis Art Museum Takes Legal Action to Keep Its Egyptian Mummy Mask

The limestone statue of Akhenaten that Egyptian Minister of Antiquities Zahi Hawass has first reported as damaged and then reported as stolen has been found---reportedly discovered by a 16-year-old boy next to a trash can. Ahram Online has the story.Ahram also reports today that there were indeed thefts at the Saqqara and Abusir archaeological sites. Hawass had unequivocally … [Read more...] about Akhenaten Statue Found; Saqqara and Abusir Looting Detailed

The Ghost Behind the Pollock: Donor/Collector Peggy GuggenheimPhoto (detail): Roloff Beny I can't believe we're again rehashing the arguments over the monetization of the Univerisity of Iowa's Pollock masterpiece, "Mural." It's 2008-2009 all over again, except that the idea of ditching art to diminish deficits may be gaining new traction in the current economic and political … [Read more...] about Deaccession Debate: Iowa’s Pollock Battle Heats Up

On his website today, Egyptian Minister of Antiquities Zahi Hawass gave his explanations for some of the many obvious contradictions between his previous reports on the security of the Egyptian Museum and the country's archaeological sites, and the actual facts as they have unfolded. He also announced:Fragments belonging to the statue of Tutankhamun being carried by the … [Read more...] about Hawass Watch: Egyptian Minister’s Corrections and Concessions

Jasper Johns, one of 15 honorees receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom yesterday. (Former President George H.W. Bush, seated at the right, fiddles with his newly conferred medal.)To see Pop artist Jasper Johns get medaled, go to the White House video and scroll to the 27-minute mark (right after the awarding of a medal to frail-looking former President George H.W. … [Read more...] about Wanna See Jasper Johns Getting the Presidential Medal of Freedom?

A day after a large group of angry demonstrators gathered outside the headquarters of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, there's still, at this writing, no update on Antiquities Minister Zahi Hawass' website about the situation at the Egyptian Museum and the country's archaeological sites, not even to say that three of the objects that he reported on Sunday as stolen from … [Read more...] about Hawass Watch: Interviewed by CBS; Reportedly Hangs Up on Al Jazeera

President Obama has announced the Fiscal 2012 budget that he will present to Congress, and, as expected, it includes some cultural cuts among the terminations and reductions. According to the Office of Management and Budget's introduction of the large list of proposed economies throughout the federal government: There have been more than 120 terminations, reductions, and other … [Read more...] about Obama’s FY 2012 Budget: NEA, NEH Reduced; Save America’s Treasure and Preserve America Axed UPDATED