Oh, the irony of it. Las Vegas, a metropolis with more than 1.8 million people that allowed its art museum to close in February, 2009, is about to get two new museums — about the Mob.
One, the Las Vegas Museum of Organized Crime and Law Enforcement, is a city effort, being installed in a disused downtown courthouse (at left) and set to open next March.
It’s already been nicknamed The Mob Museum, which is its website address.
The other, the Las Vegas Mob Experience, is a private effort by something called Eagle Group Holdings, in conjunction with Antoinette McConnell, 74, the daughter of notorious Sam “Momo” Giancana, head of the Chicago mob from 1957-66 (AKA “Sam the Cigar,” “Sam Gold,” “Sam Flood,” and “Mooney”). It is set to open by year-end in a space in, according to a Page One article in Sunday’s New York Times, the Tropicana casino on the Las Vegas Strip. It sounds like a theme park that could well end up glorifying mob exploits.
The city effort, on the other hand, has engaged Dennie Barrie, who headed the Cincinnati Contemporary Arts Center during the obscenity flap over Robert Maplethorpe’s exhibition there, then led the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and later helped create the International Spy Museum in Washington. That means something: Barrie has substance. The restored courthouse will contain 700 objects arranged in interactive exhibits that tell stories about the law’s efforts against the Mob in Vegas. They include, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal:
an exhibit called “Mob Mayhem,” featuring weapons used by hit men and explanations of secret messages hidden within murders. The centerpiece…will be the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre wall from a Chicago warehouse where Al Capone’s men slaughtered members of a rival gang in 1929.
“The Skim” concerns Las Vegas’ casinos and the revenue they provided to crime families across the country. The walls will be papered with cash, Barrie said, and displays will show how casino profits were diverted….
Another exhibit will be “Bringing Down the Mob” and will focus on wiretaps and surveillance. Visitors will be able to listen to Mob conversations, view surveillance footage and learn about establishing new lives in witness protection.
Federal, state and local money, to the tune of $42 million, is paying for the museum, and Vegas officials tried but failed to get federal stimulus funds, too. They call it part of the downtown revitalization efforts, and expect 250,000 to 600,000 visitors a year (such a big spread that it sounds like a guess).
Contrast that with the LV Art Museum, which had 1,000 members at its closing. Las Vegas is a tough town for visual arts — the Guggenheim gave up after a trial run with the Hermitage, and so did Pace Wildenstein.
But where are the city’s arts patrons? Art may not be for everyone, and shouldn’t try to be. But it’s sad to think that so many people now lack access to a real art museum in their community.
LVAM remains as a website, with links to commercial galleries.
Photo Credit: Courtesy The New York Times