Archives for July 2011

The flagship building of the American Folk Art Museum (with the red banner) on its last day. On left (behind the white "MoMA" fence) is the vacant lot where the Nouvel-designed MoMA/Hines tower may eventually rise. On the right is MoMA. The financially struggling American Folk Art Museum (AFAM), which permanently closed its 53rd Street building to the public on July 8, … [Read more...] about Folk Art Museum’s Bad-News Day: Sale to MoMA Consummated, Disgraced Patron Sentenced

I've been called many names, but, until now, "oracle" has not been among them.That's how the American Association of Museums' new Center for the Future of Museums (CFM) is referring to the museum professionals and other experts (including me) enlisted to identify and reflect upon emerging ethical issues that museums will likely confront in the coming decades. This nascent think … [Read more...] about CultureGrrl the Oracle: Hot-Button Issues Surveyed by Center for the Future of Museums UPDATED

Ai Weiwei's Google+ photoMy advice to you is this: Hurry over to Ai Weiwei's Google+ page, just established yesterday [via], while you still can. Who knows how this latest (and, given his recent 81-day detention, most audacious) thumb-in-the-eye to the Chinese authorities can remain there, uncensored?As Jeremy Page of the Wall Street Journal reported at the time of Ai's release … [Read more...] about Testing the Boundaries: Ai Weiwei Speaks via Google+ (plus CultureGrrl Video of Asia Society show)

Entrance to Boston Museum of Fine Arts' "Art of the Ancient World" galleriesI knew that I could count on CultureGrrl's scholarly readers to evaluate the provenances provided to me by the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts for the eight ancient Egyptian objects on loan to the museum from the recently indicted Virginia collector, Joseph Lewis II.Archaeologist/blogger David Gill (who … [Read more...] about Joseph Lewis’ Egyptian Art Loans at U.S. Museums, Continued (plus Boston’s planned giveback to Turkey)

Signing cultural-property agreement with Greece: U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Greek Minister of Foreign Affairs Stavros Lambrinidis A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Greece, restricting U.S. importation of that country's cultural property, was signed Saturday at the Acropolis Museum, Athens, by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Greek Minister … [Read more...] about Greek Cultural-Property Agreement: U.S. Adopts Broad Import Restrictions

This just posted on the Restore + Save the Egyptian Museum! Facebook page (for Egyptologists) by Nicole Hansen, who in March had participated in a Cairo demonstration demanding that antiquities be kept independent from the Ministry of Culture under the post-Mubarak regime:New list of candidates for [antiquities] minister: Abdel Halim Noureddin, Raafat al-Nabrawi, Wagdi Abbas, … [Read more...] about Hawass Watch: New Candidates for Antiquities Minister Post

The Incredible Reappearing Minister: Zahi HawassHow many times can Zahi Hawass come back from the dead?  The Art Newspaper (along with several Middle Eastern news sources, in Arabic) has reported that Hawass has been asked to stay on the job as Egypt's Minister of Antiquities, at least for now. Martin Bailey of the Art Newspaper writes:On July 19 he [Hawass] told the Art … [Read more...] about He’s Ba-a-a-ck! Hawass Reportedly Reassumes Antiquities Post (for now)

Late Friday afternoon, Stephen Bonadies, the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts' deputy director for collections and facilities management, responded with laudable swiftness and thoroughness to my request for a complete list of ancient Egyptian objects loaned to the museum by Virginia collector Joseph Lewis II, who was recently indicted (along with three dealers) for the alleged … [Read more...] about Dept. of Transparency: Virginia MFA Provides Complete List of Lewis’ Egyptian Loans (with images & provenance)

Farewell, Abdel-Fattah El-Banna. We hardly knew you. Erupting protests by Egyptian archaeologists (which I gave you a first heads-up about in my previous post) were evidently so effective that Egyptian Prime Minister Essam Sharaf said, in effect, "Just kidding!" and withdrew his nomination of El-Banna to succeed Zahi Hawass as that country's antiquities minister. The nomination … [Read more...] about Egyptian Antiquities Ministry Revolving Door: El-Banna Out Before Sworn In

Abdel-Fattah El-Banna, Egypt's new Minister of AntiquitiesIn what the Egyptian newspaper Al-Ahram has described as "the latest cabinet reshuffle," Zahi Hawass is being replaced as Egypt's Minister of Antiquities by Abdel-Fattah El-Banna---one of many new appointments just announced by Prime Minister Essam Sharaf. UPDATE: The link in the above paragraph now calls up a "Page … [Read more...] about Egypt’s Revamped Cabinet: Zahi Hawass Replaced by Abdel-Fattah El-Banna UPDATED and CORRECTED

Alex Nyerges, director, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts In my previous post about the indictment of collector Joseph Lewis II for alleged antiquities smuggling, I mentioned that this case "could reverberate through the U.S. museum and collecting communities." I have not yet heard form Emory University's Michael C. Carlos Museum, Atlanta; the Boston Museum of Fine Arts says … [Read more...] about Virginia MFA’s Lewis Loans: More on Museums & the Indicted Egyptian Antiquities Collector

Under indictment: Egyptian art collector Joseph A. Lewis II A criminal indictment concerning alleged smuggling of Egyptian antiquities and money laundering, unsealed Wednesday in U.S. District Court, Eastern District of New York, could reverberate through the U.S. museum and collecting communities. Egyptian art collector Joseph A. Lewis II of Chesterfield County, VA, from … [Read more...] about Museum Alert: Egyptian Art Collector Joseph Lewis Charged with Smuggling, Money Laundering

Sign in Asia Society's lobby heralds show postponed from March to next month.In the history of exasperatingly difficult-to-organize exhibitions, few can top Asia Society's upcoming Buddhist Heritage of Pakistan: Art of Gandhara, now expected to open on or about Aug. 9 for a run of about three months, as its curator, Adriana Proser, told me today. The show of sculptures, … [Read more...] about Logistical & Diplomatic Nightmare: Asia Society’s Postponed Pakistan Show Gets Back on Track

With the $31.2-million sale (to be consummated on July 22) of its flagship building on New York's W. 53rd Street, the financial trainwreck that is the American Folk Art Museum (AFAM) was given 90 days to clear out of its 10-year-old Tod Williams Billie Tsien-designed facility. It will settle into what was had been its satellite location---a comparatively small site near Lincoln … [Read more...] about American Folk Art Museum’s Last Day on W. 53rd: My Narrated Slideshow (plus the Barnes Foundation’s closure)

                     Crystal Bridges at top right of the mapIn an official announcement, posted today, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art reported that it netted 3,000 members since the July 1 start of its membership drive. As of this morning, the total was actually about … [Read more...] about 3,100 and Counting: Crystal Bridges Museum Plans 24-Hour Members’ Day