Art Theft On Rise In China Thefts of artifacts from Chinese museums are on the increase. "Forty cases involving 222 items stolen from protected sites and museums were recorded last year, an 81.8 percent increase year-on-year" in 2004. Taipei Times 02/28/05

Spoof "Gates" A Hit Geoff Hargadon created "13 miniature plastic gates spread across his loft, often tracing the path of his cat, Edie" in a spoof of the Christo and Jeanne-Claude's Central Park "Gates." Hargadon -- "Hargo," as he's now known -- had to shut down his Web site featuring photos of "The Somerville Gates" after it received 5.5 million hits in one week. He's been fielding media calls nonstop and has been interviewed by reporters from Germany to Colombia. The art department at Meredith College in Raleigh, N.C., said Friday that it wants one of the Somerville gates for its collection." Chicago Tribune (AP) 02/28/05

Japanese Museum Tops 2004 Attendance Figures For the first time, a Japanese museum has topped world museum attendance records compiled by the Art Newspaper. "The most visited show of 2004 was “Treasures of a sacred mountain” at the Tokyo National Museum which was seen by an average of 7,638 visitors a day, while another exhibition at the institution, “Treasures of Chinese art” has also made it into the top 10.The remarkable increase in attendance to Japanese exhibitions follows the 2001 semi-privatisation of all State-run museums, combined with the country’s continuing recession which has fostered a ruthlessly competitive climate among Japanese institutions." The Art Newspaper 02/28/05

Taking Down The Gates The dismantling of the 7,500 "Gates" in Central Park begins today. Taking them down "will be easier than the installation because there will not be any need to be careful. The 5,290 tons of steel will be melted down and recycled - The aluminum is going to become cans of soda and the fabric will be shredded and turned into carpet padding. Then all that will be left of "The Gates" will be the memories, and the T-shirts, coffee mugs, posters, watches and baseball caps. There will also be the coffee table book, as there is for most of their projects. Christo spent yesterday morning with Wolfgang Volz, the photographer, gathering pictures for the book." The New York Times 02/28/05

The Gates - Amazing Idea... But Up Close? The Central Park "Gates" have been a huge hit. "Such a mass affirmation of the imagination was, in my view, a grand pursuit, an affirmation capable of washing away the psychic residue of 9/11 and the memory of those flaming orange chrysanthemums of fire that appalled and humbled us all. But the physical incarnation of the idea -- The Gates themselves -- were another matter. Approaching Central Park, one was immediately struck by an obvious truth: As a sculptural installation in the landscape, it didn't work." The Globe & Mail (Canada) 02/28/05

Where New York Goes To Make Art Where is the hot art scene in Manhattan these days? Okay, Soho has gentrified itself out of art. But the new art hotspots are compelling... New York Magazine 02/28/05

Art Of Collecting (When Just Money Won't Do It) These days it takes more than money to buy art from the hottest artists. "The contemporary-art market hasn’t been this overheated since Soho circa 1989. Nowadays, hedge-fund billionaires who stroll into Chelsea galleries seeking work by Damien Hirst, Jeff Koons, or Cecily Brown quickly discover that money alone won’t help them get it. There is, more than ever, a waiting list, and more to the point, a pecking order within the list, which vaults some collectors above others." New York Magazine 02/28/05

David - A Question Of Anatomy? Are "David's" physical proportions correct? Michelangelo's "towering sculpture acclaimed for its depiction of male physical perfection, has always been the subject of jokes among Florentines and tourists for the modest dimensions of his "pisello." But according to a study to be published at the end of this month by the Dutch Institute for Art History, in Florence, David's genitals are anatomically correct for a male body in a "pre-fight tension." Discovery 02/27/05

Kurtz - Artist Or Bio-Terrorist? Artist Steven Kurtz faces 20 years in jail, accused of charges related to bio-terrorism. "Most scientists considered the accusations nonsense. It is common practice to exchange material on a casual basis. Vials and test-tubes are carried in pockets and briefcases and swapped at conferences or in pubs. Kurtz believes he is a victim of a political persecution. 'I have been vocal about the way the state is using research in germ warfare. That is why they want to get me'." The Observer (UK) 02/27/05

Trustees To Vote On Cleveland Expansion One week from now, the board members of the Cleveland Museum of Art have a huge decision to make: should they commit to a $225 million expansion and renovation of their building, as designed by architect Rafael Vinoly? The advantages of such a project are obvious, but the complications for the museum could be myriad. The city of Cleveland is fighting decades of decline and is currently in a deep financial hole, limiting available civic funds for the museum project. Board members have already raised some money for the expansion, but there are questions about whether they have the connections necessary to raise the rest. Still, there's little question that Vinoly's design, if realized, would be a huge boon to the institution, and that may trump all other concerns. The Plain Dealer (Cleveland) 02/27/05

Form & Function, Together At Last How do you get a community to embrace the construction of a water treatment plant in its backyard? Hire a really good architect, and build the coolest-looking water treatment plant ever. "From New Haven to Hiroshima, architects best known for signature museums and concert halls are now designing buildings filled with tanks and filters... Why shout 'Not in my backyard!' if your backyard can be made to resemble a sculpture garden?" The New York Times 02/27/05

Berlin's Ambassadors of Architecture "Little daring architecture was born of the fortune that was spent on rebuilding Berlin in the 1990's - which was just how the city fathers wanted it." But in the years since reunification, the challenge of embracing bold new architecture in Berlin has been enthusiastically taken up - not by the Germans, but by the architects of the foreign embassies that dot the city. "In an unusual communal experiment, Denmark, Iceland, Norway, Sweden and Finland have built a hamlet of embassies behind a glowing green copper fence in the traditional diplomatic district of Tiergarten in the former West Berlin. Across town, deep inside the former East Berlin, the Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas has designed his country's ultramodern embassy overlooking the Spree River. The New York Times 02/26/05

SF's de Young Museum To Reopen With New Acquistitions New York entrepreneur and art collector John Friede has announced that he will donate his entire 3,000-piece collection of New Guinean art to the soon-to-reopen de Young Museum in San Francisco. The collection is valued at over $100 million, and 300 pieces will be immediately exhibited in the de Young's new building when it opens in October. The New York Times 02/26/05

Artistic Paneling One year after abandoning the practice of using an expert advisory committee to select American participants for international art exhibitions, the National Endowment for the Arts and the U.S. State Department are reconstituting the panel. The new committee will be made up of nine diverse curators, museum directors, and artists from across the U.S., and is expected to be in place within months. The New York Times 02/25/05

Designs Submitted For New NYC Rail Hub New York City's seemingly Quixotic quest to build a major new train station in midtown Manhattan has finally become a reality, and three developers are competing for the right to design it. "The design proposals all incorporate what has playfully become known as the potato chip - a shapely glass and steel canopy that will encompass the new station's entry lobby. That canopy, designed by David M. Childs of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, would envelop a series of concourses that slip under the post office building, letting light flow onto the train platforms below ground." The new station would replace New York's dilapidated and congested Penn Station. The New York Times 02/25/05

Museum Bests Preservationists In Columbus Circle Suit "After being delayed more than a year by litigation, the plan to reclad and recreate 2 Columbus Circle as the new home of the Museum of Arts and Design is poised to proceed after a court decision in its favor yesterday. A five-judge panel of the Appellate Division of State Supreme Court unanimously upheld the earlier dismissal by Justice Walter B. Tolub of a lawsuit against the reconstruction project by three preservation groups - Landmark West, Historic Districts Council and Docomomo." The New York Times 02/25/05

On The Waterfront, An Ephemeral Museum Like "The Gates" in Central Park, an exhibition of large-scale photographs on Pier 54 in Manhattan is not aimed at procrastinators -- and neither is the new museum built to house it. After a three-month run, the show and the museum, designed by Shigeru Ban, will head for California. "The entire museum is to be packed in 37 of the 148 cargo containers that form its checkerboard walls. The temporary structure is composed largely of recyclable materials: the roof and columns are made of paper tubes, the steel containers stacked 34 feet high are used, and a handmade curtain to be suspended from the ceiling is made of one million pressed paper tea bags (used, with the tea leaves removed)." The New York Times 02/24/05

Kramer: Gates Are A "Defacement" Of Central Park Hilton Kramer hates the Christo Gates. "My own view is that the gates are nothing less than an unforgivable defacement of a public treasure, and everyone responsible for promoting it—including our publicity-seeking Mayor—should be held accountable, not only for supporting bad taste but for violating public trust. What has to be understood about this whole affair is that it’s not only an assault on nature, but also the wanton desecration of a precious work of art." New York Observer 02/23/05

Why McBank Architecture Is Bad For Us "Banks used to be about ritual and permanence. They resembled Greek or Roman temples, with the banker playing the secular priest, dispensing loans instead of benedictions. Banks inspired awe, though their built-for-the-ages classicism was salesmanship, designed to convince depositors that their money would be safer in the vault than stuffed in a mattress. No more. Now banks want to look like Starbucks, not the Parthenon." As branch banks approach omnipresence, can their new designs balance customer-friendliness with character? Chicago Tribune 02/23/05

While The Gates Wave, Colorado Waits "The Gates" might have New Yorkers all abuzz, but you might excuse the state of Colorado for wondering what happened to their Christo/Jeanne-Claude project. "In the "artworks in progress" section of the artists' Web site, the only project listed besides 'The Gates' is 'Over the River,' a plan to suspend several miles of shimmering fabric panels above a stretch of the Arkansas River in Colorado during a summer." But ever since The Gates hit the front burner, Colorado hasn't heard a thing from the pair. The New York Times 02/23/05

Caravaggio The Budding Cinematographer Caravaggio's paintings are hot in the UK right now, thanks largely to a genuine blockbuster exhibition featuring 16 of the master's surviving works, and even today's masters of light and perspective are impressed. In fact, a generation of filmmakers counts Caravaggio as a major influence in their work, specifically in the area of light and its effect on a scene. The Times (UK) 02/23/05

Are Crowds And Dullards Killing The Museum Experience? There is no shortage of blockbuster exhibitions being mounted in London this season, but between the long lines, the timed ticket entries, the crush of tourists, and the packs of gawkers with audioguide headphones plastered to their heads, is anyone really getting a chance to experience the paintings anymore? The Guardian (UK) 02/23/05

Scots Plea For Architectural Mercy Killing "When the makers of a new Channel 4 series on Britain’s ugliest buildings invited viewers to nominate the eyesore they would most like to see demolished they were hardly prepared for a request to flatten an entire town. But civic pride appears to be truly dead and buried in Cumbernauld, a 1950s creation that is home to 52,000 souls 15 miles northeast of Glasgow. Its residents were among the first to contact the programme, begging for dynamite and bulldozer to deliver them oblivion." The town's design won architectural awards in the brutalist-besotted 1970s, but the 2003 "Idler’s Book of Crap Towns" called Cumbernauld the second-worst place to live in the UK. The Times (UK) 02/21/05

Milan Gets Its Groove Back Stagnant since the 1970s, Milan is in the midst of a revitalization that transforms its old industrial sites and sets it up to compete with Paris and Barcelona. "Now, as the city comes to terms with its post-industrial future, a new layer is about to be added to the city bringing in some of the greatest names in 21st-century architecture – Daniel Libeskind, Zaha Hadid, Arata Isozaki, Massimiliano Fuksas, Norman Foster, Cesar Pelli." Leading the way is Fuksas' new Milan Fiera complex, set to open April 2. The Telegraph (UK) 02/22/05

Where Are The New Collectors? Disposable income has increased substantially in Britain, but changes in the ways people spend their money have left the art-and-antiques trade scrambling to find buyers. "The truth is that although many people have money to spare, most are not spending it on art and antiques in the way that perhaps their parents and almost certainly their grandparents would have done. Business at the top end of the art market is still brisk, yet there are problems further down the price scale.... There are fewer collectors." The Telegraph (UK) 02/22/05

Reality-TV Wrecking Ball: The People's Architecture Critic If its citizens have their way, an entire town could be destroyed in a new reality-television series, "Demolition," coming this fall on Britain's Channel 4. "The series is asking for suggestions of eyesores to be put to death, provoking outrage from many architects. ... Of course, it is a bit trite to apply makeover-television ethics to the landscape. But perhaps this series will highlight the inadequacies of a British planning system that so excludes the public." The Times (UK) 02/22/05

Missing The Park, Resenting The Gates Michael Kane doesn't like Central Park with the Christo Gates in it. He's "Gates hatin': The park was better before. It was a peaceful oasis in a grid of metal and concrete. The spindly trees, the sweep of the lake, even the curvature of bridges, stone walls and steps blended organically into the backdrop. Now, in the interest of art, Christo bolts down jarring, squared-off frames (in orange, no less) throughout this vital sensory escape. So aesthetically insensitive. So rectangular. So lame." New York Post 02/20/05

Record Price For Elephant Art "Eight elephants in northern Thailand have painted their way into the Guinness Book of World Records after an art lover living in the United States shelled out a jumbo 1.5 million baht ($39,000) for their canvas creation — the highest price ever paid for elephant art. Himalayan Times (Kathmandu) (AFP) 02/20/05

Luring Guys To Art With The Vrrrroom Factor Boston's Museum of Fine Arts is not the first venue in which you would expect to find an auto show. But there in its stately galleries are 16 vintage cars in all their glory, and they are there for a very good reason. "For car guys, the MFA's nontraditional exhibition offers a rare chance for time with some of the world's rarest and priciest racing machines, a collection built largely over the past 30 years by the fashion designer who created Polo. For the museum, the show has another function: to reach more men. The museum, noted for its flowery Impressionist works, says women visitors outnumber men, 64 percent to 36 percent." Boston Globe 02/20/05

Well, This Explains The Sudden Run On Saffron Fabric The artist Hargo, of Somerville, Massachusetts, may not have Christo's cachet or financial wherewithal, but that hasn't stopped him from piggybacking on the attention being paid to the better-known artist's "Gates of Central Park". In fact, Hargo's "Somerville Gates," unveiled in the artist's apartment (and on his web site) this week after a day-long installation bear a striking resemblance to the much-larger New York version. But Hargo hastens to point out the difference in the visions of the two projects. For one thing, Hargo will be accepting donations to defray the costs of mounting his gates: that cost, by the way, is $3.50... The New York Times 02/19/05

Who Owns Images Of Christo "Gates"? (Report: Street Artists Threatened With Prosecution?) "A representative of Christo's German publisher has informed street artists, photographers and art vendors around Central Park that they would be subject to arrest for selling any images of The Gates. Christo's publisher claims a vast new degree of copyright and trademark protection. They claim they will prosecute anyone who sells their own original photos of The Gates; who makes and sells a drawing of The Gates or who even uses the words, The Gates, without their permission." Infoshop News 02/18/05

US Government Releases Confiscated Art Passports Federal authorities reversed themselves on Thursday and decided to release artwork, including fake passports, that they confiscated last week in Detroit from the luggage of an Austrian artist on his way to set up an exhibit at a museum. Detroit Free Press (AP) 02/17/05

Making Sure There's Always Something Good On TV "Those sleek flat screens popping up on people's walls may just look like fancy televisions. A new generation of artists and gallery owners wants you to think of them as something else: an empty picture frame... Digital works, the latest genre of new media art, usually are sold in limited edition DVDs. But this spring, Steven Sacks, the director of New York City's bit-forms gallery, plans to start selling lower-priced original works of software art at software ART space. Prices will range from $100 for unlimited-edition works to $1,000 for numbered pieces. Buyers will get a sleekly packaged disc; limited editions will be signed by the artist." Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 02/17/05

Cooper-Hewitt Wants To Expand New York's Cooper-Hewitt Museum is proposing a "$75 million expansion that would create three new floors beneath the spacious gated garden of its home, the landmark Carnegie Mansion on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. 'In visitation and profile, Cooper-Hewitt is struggling to gain traction in the competitive cultural environment of New York City'." The New York Times 02/17/05

National Gallery Tops 5 Million Visitors London's National Gallery was the UK's most popular museum attraction in 2004. "With 5 million people marching through the National Gallery's doors last year, it was the most visited museum in the country, and the second most visited tourist attraction - pipped only by the perennially popular Blackpool Pleasure Beach, according to figures prepared by the Association of Leading Visitor Attractions." The Guardian (UK) 02/16/05

Central Park Gates Draw Million People More than a million people have been to Central Park to see the Christo Gates. "An estimated 350,000 people visited the park on Saturday's opening day; even more – 450,000 – came Sunday. Rain reduced crowds on Monday, the conservancy said, but noted that 200,000 visited on Tuesday, when U.S. First Lady Laura Bush was among those in attendance. By comparison, the park typically receives 65,000 visitors a day during weekends in February. In the spring during the city's busy tourist season, the park receives about 250,000 visitors a day on weekends." CBC 02/16/05

Iran Dams Threaten Archaeological Sites Several dam projects in Iran seriously threaten important archaeological sites. Some of those projects may be delayed so surveys can be completed. Others are out of time... The Art Newspaper 02/16/05

British Government Knew Queen's Benin Bronze Had Been "Expropriated" The British Foreign Office knew back in the 1970s that a Benin bronze head given to the Queen by Benin's president had been "expropriated" from the Lagos Museum. “The bronze which Gowon gave to the Queen on his [1973] state visit was a sixteenth century piece worth up to £30,000 on the market. It was in the Lagos Museum up to a few days before Gowon left for the UK when, realising he had to come bearing a suitable gift, he sent to the Museum and said ‘I’ll have that one’.” The Art Newspaper 02/16/05

Dallas Museum's New Riches Among A Cultural Boom The Dallas Museum gets $400 million worth of art and cash, making it a major center of modern art. Moreover, "the gifts arrive amid a Dallas cultural building boom: a new $275 million performing arts center includes an opera house designed by Norman Foster, a theater designed by Rem Koolhaas and an arts high school. They will become part of the Dallas Arts District, which already embraces the Morton H. Myerson Symphony Center." The New York Times 02/16/05

Dallas Museum Gets $400 Million The Dallas Museum of Art had a big day Tuesday, getting donations worth as much as $400 million: three extensive art collections, a $25 million Monet, $32 million of endowment funds for acquisitions and a really nice house on Preston Road. The stash of 800 works dating from the 1940s to the present includes giants such as Jasper Johns, Richard Serra, Willem de Kooning and Gerhard Richter. It's the largest combined gift in the museum's history and one of the nation's biggest ever." Dallas Morning News 02/16/05

US Confiscates Art Passports US Customs agents have confiscated fake passports intended for an art show, saying they might be "harmful if imported." "The items belonged to an art group headed by Vienna artist Robert Jelinek, and included what the government described as "fantasy passports," along with ink pads, rubber stamps and ink. They were taken from Jelinek's luggage Feb. 9 in Detroit as he headed for Cincinnati." ABCNews.com 02/16/05

Poker-Playing Dogs Sells For $590,000 "A pair of paintings from the famed series depicting dogs playing poker sold for $590,400 at auction on Tuesday. The winning bid set a new auction record for artist Cassius Marcellus Coolidge, whose previous top sale was $74,000 for a painting at a Sotheby's auction in 1999." Newsday (AP) 02/15/05

Houston's MFA Gets $450 Million Oil heiress Caroline Wiess Law has left Houston's Museum of Fine Arts the bulk of her estate. "When all of Law's assets are sold and the legal proceedings conclude, possibly by the end of this year, the museum could net between $400 million and $450 million. In recent history, this would be one of the biggest, if not the biggest cash gifts to an art museum. This money will help make Houston one of the most important museums in terms of programming and serving the public." Houston Chronicle 02/15/05

Colorizing On The Nile A website is offering images of colored ancient statues. The experiments in color are part of "a growing trend that has resulted in a recent Vatican Museum exhibit on colored statues, as well as actual restoration of the world's best-preserved painted sculpture. Before these projects, most all Egyptian, Mesopotamian, Greek, Roman and other early sculptures only were seen in the monotone colors of the sculpture's primary material, such as clay or marble, even though many of the objects originally were covered with gilt and bright paints." Discovery 02/15/05

Cuno: Chinese Art Embargo A Bad Thing China has recently requested an embargo on art coming out of China. But this is bad policy, writes James Cuno. "China's request to the US Cultural Property Advisory Committee for an embargo on exports of archaeological material and cultural property is injurious to the discovery and dissemination of knowledge about the art and culture of the many peoples who have lived and worked in, and traded through, China for millennia."
Orientations 02/05

Fingerprint Proves Artist Was Leonardo? A fingerprint and stylistic touches uncovered during restoration of a disputed Renaissance masterpiece raises the possibility it may have been painted by Leonardo da Vinci, who sometimes left his mark on works as a kind of signature, restorers said Tuesday. Miami Herald (AP) 02/15/05

WTC Memorial: A "Grandiose Paen To Grief" What has happened to the World Trade Center Memorial? A year after being chosen, the design has been bloated, writes James Russell. "It was inevitable the planned memorial would grow to a disturbingly large size, once it was deemed that the towers' footprints must be entirely preserved -- for political, not design reasons, in response to pleas from some of the victims' family members. In the past year, the proposed project has expanded into a vast commemorative complex; it threatens to become a grandiose paean to grief." Bloomberg.com 02/15/05

Iraqi Artifacts Recovered In US Eight priceless Iraqi stone seals are recovered by the FBI in the US. An "ex-Marine bought the seals from a vendor on a U.S. military base in southern Iraq in late 2003. He returned with them to the United States in early 2004 and took them to show Zainab Bahrani, a Columbia University professor of ancient Near Eastern art and archaeology. "I think he just looked me up on the Internet. He was in New York and looking for an expert. His goal was to return them right from the start. The reason he did it was that he was trying to show how easy it is to remove cultural artifacts out of Iraq. This is not a unique example. These objects are being taken out of the country by the thousands, and we are fortunate he brought the issue to the forefront." Philadelphia Inquirer 02/15/05

Would Olmstead Have Liked Central Park's "Gates"? What would the architects of Central Park have thought of the Christo and Jeanne Claude Gates? Probably not much. "From the beginning, Olmsted and Vaux strenuously opposed all attempts to introduce art into the park. In their Greensward Plan of 1858—the competition entry that won them the commission—they wrote that while it would be possible to build elegant buildings in the park, "we conceive that all such architectural structures should be confessedly subservient to the main idea, and that nothing artificial should be obtruded on the view." They considered art a similar distraction from the restorative purpose of the landscape and kept statues out of the park." Slate 02/14/05

Lincoln On Historical Steroids It's three months before the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum is supposed to open in Springfield, Illinois. "Museum officials say they're blending scholarship and showmanship on a scale never attempted before, without undermining the accuracy of the history they present. If they succeed, they contend, museums all over the world will imitate them. If they fail, they know -- because it's started to happen already -- they'll be savaged for Disneyfying the past." Washington Post 02/15/05

Will New Law Chase Art Sellers Out Of UK? Next year the UK will require that artists (or their heirs) get a portion of the resale price of an art work. "Many fear the levy, which comes in on 1 January 2006, will force vendors out of the UK in favour of non-EU countries like Switzerland and the US." BBC 02/15/05

Hidden City's Remains Uncovered By Tsunami Parts of a long-lost port city in India were uncovered by last year's tsunami. "Archaeologists say they have discovered some stone remains from the coast close to India's famous beachfront Mahabalipuram temple in Tamil Nadu state following the 26 December tsunami. They believe that the "structures" could be the remains of an ancient and once-flourishing port city in the area housing the famous 1200-year-old rock-hewn temple." BBC 02/13/05

Is Palm Beach The Next Maastricht? Art Basel Miami has become an art sensation in Florida for contemporary collectors. Now Palm Beach wants to the same for Old Masters. First though, to settle on a name: The fair has "changed its name twice in the past two years, the latest version being Palm Beach! America's International Fine Art & Antique Fair. The exclamation mark caused some hilarity in the art market and there were rumours that an outside consultant had been paid $500,000 to come up with the idea. The fair's organisers deny the latter suggestion and say that it was dreamed up in-house, but there is no doubt about their strategy." The Telegraph (UK) 02/14/05

Calatrava Wins AIA Gold Medal Architect Santiago Calatrava, 53, wins the American Institute of Architects' highest honor, the Gold Medal. "Even at his age, Calatrava still deserves to be called a phenom. After all, at 53 most architects with strong personal visions are just beginning to make their presence felt. But Calatrava has accomplished so much in so short a period of time it is hard to comprehend. He has designed opera houses, museums, stadiums, civic centers, train stations, airports and other types of buildings throughout Europe and in the United States. And bridges. With Calatrava, you cannot forget bridges." Washington Post 02/14/05

Gopnik: Christo Gates "Unusually Slight" Christo and Jeanne-Claude's Central Park Gates "are charming bits of civic ornament," writes Blake Gopnik. "They're drawing New Yorkers out in crowds to stroll among and under them, and should continue to do so for the two weeks that they're up. But as a work of outdoor art, in competition with the best of Bernini or even Henry Moore -- and especially compared with some of the couple's earlier projects -- they're unusually slight. It's amazing how small the artistic return can be on a piece that fills 850 acres in the middle of one of the world's great cities and looks set to cost $21 million before it's done." Washington Post 02/13/05

Is Tampa Museum Up To A New Building? The Tampa Museum wants to build a signature $54 million building downtown to house its collections. But is the museum director described as "nice" up to the job of getting it done? St. Petersburg Times 02/14/05

A Wednesday Museum Strike Staff at three leading UK museums are planning to strike Wednesday. "Curators and other workers at the Science Museum in London will take part in the protest over a below-inflation wage offer and cost-cutting measures. The National Railway Museum in York and the National Museum of Photography, Film and Television in Bradford will also be hit by the action." BBC 02/14/05

Plundering Iraq "Tens of thousands of objects have just gone completely missing From Iraq in the past two years. It's a cultural disaster of massive proportions. A senior counterterrorism official said the trade in illicit antiquities was increasingly run by organized rings of professional thieves, who use poor Iraqis in rural areas as diggers. Objects are funneled out of the country in concealed shipments along smuggling routes that have been plied for centuries, in a system in which artifacts are sold for cash or sometimes for weapons that wind up in the hands of insurgents in Iraq. Some archaeological experts estimate that the illegal antiquities trade may pump tens of millions of dollars into the underground economy in Iraq." The New York Times 02/14/05

Business: Cheering For Christo New York businesses are cheering Christo and Jeanne Claude's The Gates. "City officials said they expected tens of thousands of people to show up for the exhibition, which is to be up for only 16 days, and whose $20 million cost is being borne exclusively by the artists. By the time the 7,500 gates are taken down in two weeks, the city expects to generate $80 million in business, with $2.5 million in city taxes alone, according to the city's Economic Development Corporation." The New York Times 02/14/05

Sozanski On Christo: Ribbon Of Color? I Don't See It Ed Sozanski was in New York's Central Park as Christo and Jeanne Claude's banners were unfurled. "Despite the enormous number of gates, their spacing is such that they never coalesce into a memorable visual force. One perceives hundreds of individual elements instead of an ensemble. Even from a distance - looking across the spacious lawn of the Sheep Meadow, for instance - the effect is fragmented, even slightly chaotic. Only when one is sighting down a curve and the panels elide one into another does The Gates achieve coherence, but those impressions last only a few seconds." Philadelphia Inquirer 02/13/05

Workers Destroy Section Of China's Great Wall Construction workers destroyed a large section of the Great Wall of China recently. "Almost 100m of the wall in northern Ningxia autonomous region was levelled in two overnight raids by construction workers who used the material to pave a road. The destroyed area near Zhongwei city was constructed during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) in an region known as "the Great Wall Museum" because of the profusion of rammed earth sections of the wall." News.com.au 02/12/05

UK Museums Trapped In Vicious Cycle UK museums are facing a funding crisis with no end in sight. "The reality is that a decade of expansion has left many British museums struggling to pay for running all those shiny new buildings they have only just opened. At the same time, the abolition of admission charges two years ago raised expectations about visitor numbers. The British Museum and the National Gallery both get close to five million a year; the Science Museum has more than two million. Even if these vast numbers remain static, they will be seen as a sign of failure... But to keep the audience coming back each year requires continuous investment." The Guardian (UK) 02/12/05

America's Steadiest Architect A new museum in the German resort town of Baden-Baden, built to house a private art collection in a setting open to the public, is a low-profile but important architectural triumph from American architect Richard Meier. "Modest in size and appealing in scale, it is quintessential Meier, a condensation of his complex architectural vocabulary into an intensely beautiful pavilion in a park. Visiting it makes one appreciate (again) how stubbornly consistent Meier has been over the past four decades about the means and ends of architecture -- and how stupendously good he can be." Washington Post 02/13/05

The Gates Open One by one, on a sunny Saturday morning in winter, 7,500 huge ribbons of saffron-colored fabric were released from their bonds and turned New York's Central Park into a blaze of color, courtesy of the installation artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude. "Like all projects by this duo, 'The Gates' is as much a public happening as it is a vast environmental sculpture and a feat of engineering... The gates need to be - they are conceived to be - experienced on the ground, at eye level, where, as you move through the park, they crisscross and double up, rising over hills, blocking your view of everything except sky, then passing underfoot, through an underpass, or suddenly appearing through a copse of trees, their fabric fluttering in the corner of your eye." The New York Times 02/13/05

• Vox Populi New Yorkers are rarely shy with their opinions, and the Gates of Central Park are inspiring plenty of comment from Manhattan's residents, from gripes about the cost (which is being covered entirely by the artists) to praise for the way the saffron colors have transformed Central Park in winter. The Guardian (UK) 02/12/05

MoMA - Back From The Spa The remade Museum of Modern Art is the return of an old friend, writes Mark Wigley. "While savoring the return of this wonderful collection and expressing our appreciation to the museum, this is not a moment to celebrate architecture for its capacity to maintain subservient yet elegant good manners. Like the best art, the best buildings make us hesitate, disturbing our routines so that we see, think, and feel in ways we simply could not have imagined before. Architecture itself should be an education. To complain that the resultant building is attractive but tame, that the architecture has been domesticated, neutralized, just as the artworks it houses have had their social and intellectual edge removed to be enlisted for a singular global mission, is as pointless as accusing a church of preaching. MoMA is devoted to a particular form of education and does not pretend otherwise." Artforum 02//05

The Gates Of Central Park: A Dream Fulfilled One New York City Parks Commissioner describes the artist Christo and his wife/collaborater Jeanne-Claude as "relentless, in the best New York City way," and the massive draping of Central Park is the proof. The project, which will come to fruition this weekend, is the culmination of a quarter-century of begging, cajoling, and convincing by the artists, who use the proceeds from small, collector-friendly works to fund their huge flights of artistic fancy. Washington Post 02/10/05

Less Than Cutting-Edge, By Design San Francisco is a cutting-edge city in so many ways, so why does it lag behind other big metropolises when it comes to innovative architecture? Perhaps it's not entirely a bad thing, especially if the city's reluctance to embrace New York-style modernism is rooted in a devotion to its own unique look. "[G]ood buildings here have deep roots. They're tied to their setting, whether it's a rural hillside or a city street, and they draw on what's around them... Second, there's a conscious attempt to build on the past in fresh ways, [and] finally, the good local architects appreciate how our urban world is shaped by nature. The Bay Area is not some blank slate waiting for buildings to shape the landscape. What makes this region special is the environment." San Francisco Chronicle 02/10/05

Freud Paintings Earn $15 Mil At Auction "Lucian Freud's painting of a naked and pregnant Kate Moss was sold at auction yesterday for $7.29 million (U.S.), and another Freud painting...'Red Haired Man on a Chair,' sold for a record $7.71 million." Toronto Star (AP) 02/10/05

London - Architecture Capital Of The World? "Architecture is London at its most diverse, something fundamental to its future as a leading international centre for design. But, despite this, few major established foreign architectural talents have settled here or opened important offices. So the arrival of a big New York heavyweight, Rafael Viñoly is a fascinating development." The Telegraph (UK) 02/10/05

An Art "Happening" In Central Park Hundreds of volunteers are working hard in New York's Central Park this week to put up the 7,500 gates of Christo and Jeanne Claude's project. "While each team seemed diverse in age and profession, from college students to retired teachers and doctors, all had a common bond: a resolve to be a part of the city's biggest public-art happening ever." The New York Times 02/10/05

Art Gallery Of Ontario Lays Off 71 Workers Toronto's Art Gallery of Ontario is laying off 71 employees as it begins work on its $195 million Frank-Gehry-designed expansion. "This likely is the harbinger of further cuts in staffing over the three-year construction period that is expected to conclude in the spring of 2008. The AGO has an estimated 450 full-time and part-time staff. The initial layoffs involve 58 staff members -- 18 of them full-time -- in the AGO's retail and food/beverage operations, as well as 13 temporary employees. The Globe & Mail (Canada) 02/09/05

Bush Favors Mall Site For African-American History Museum George Bush endorses the National Mall as the site for a new national museum honoring African-American history. "A commission formed to establish an African American history museum on the Mall is considering four sites in Washington; only two are on the Mall. Many African American groups have said if the museum is not built on the Mall, they would consider it a slight." Washington Post 02/09/05

Central Park In Orange Only a few days to go before New York's Central Park unfurls in a wash of orange cloth, courtesy of Christo and Jeanne Claude... Morning Edition (NPR) 02/09/05 (Audio clip)

Judge Dismisses Elizabeth Taylor Van Gogh Suit A judge has dismissed a lawsuit against Elizabeth Taylor over a Van Gogh painting a German family claimed had been stolen by the Nazis. The 1889 artwork was bought by actress Ms Taylor at auction in 1963. BBC 02/09/05

Meet The Christo Groupies New York officials are expecting thousands of visitors to come to the city to see Christo's Central park Gates. "From art collectors to museum groups, tourists to paid Christo volunteers, the city expects 200,000 to flock to the city for the installation, which will remain through Feb. 27. Such figures, of course, are mere guesses for now. But there does seem to be universal agreement that in a traditionally slow tourism period, New York will draw record numbers of visitors, thanks to "The Gates."" The New York Times 02/09/05

Factory Artists (21st Century Model) "Cities like New Haven are installing artists in factories and other workplaces to see how technology, be it vintage or cutting-edge, can inform art in the 21st century. Under the auspices of Artspace, a local arts organization, 10 artists were selected last year to be in residence at Connecticut businesses." The New York Times 02/09/05

Tate Breaks Tcket Sales Record "A record 21,000 people have booked tickets to see the new Turner Whistler Monet exhibition at Tate Britain, the largest advance booking for a Tate show. The previous record was set by the Hopper exhibition at Tate Modern last summer, which had advance sales of 13,500 tickets." The Guardian (UK) 02/09/05

Chicago's Millennium Park - No Photos Allowed "Chicago spent $270 million on its Millennium Park, placing a big public sculpture by Anish Kapoor in the middle of it... Woe betide any member of the public who tries to photograph this sculpture, though: it's a copyrighted sculpture and Chicago is spending even more money policing Chicagoans who try to photograph it and make a record of what their tax-dollars bought." Boing Boing 02/08/05

Moscow Biennale - Art Of Protest "The buzz of the first Moscow Biennale is not the dozens of critically acclaimed international artists represented, some of whom swooped down for the opening last week. While the organisers said they saw record crowds of 2,000 visitors a day on the first weekend, the Lenin Museum had the calm, slow atmosphere of a library by midweek. Rather the beating heart of the festival is Russia's protest art, which is experiencing a boisterous resurgence in Moscow." Financial Times 02/08/05

Iraq Art Hole The art situation in Iraq is still bleak. "All museums remain closed, and looting of archaeological sites continues. The Iraqis lack the funds, equipment, and personnel to cope with the restoration and maintenance of museums and monuments and the protection of archaeological sites." The Art Newspaper 02/07/05

African Plunder Recovered A huge collection of plundered African art was intercepted in Niger recently. "The 845-piece collection, dating as far back as 70 million years ago, includes antiquities of incalculable value, ranging from dinosaur teeth to neolithic arrowheads and ancient pottery. While this seizure is notable for the size and breadth of the artefacts contained within the collection, such caches of treasures smuggled out of the continent and into private collections or curio shops around the world are neither rare nor exclusive to Niger." News24.com 02/07/05

Frozen Conflict - A (Messy) Story About Replacing The World Trade Center A new book by Philip Nobel chronicles the messy process of coming up with a design for something at the World Trade Center site. "A decade or two from now, New York City will have gotten what it wants and deserves - not a magnificent citadel but a patchwork of pragmatism, profitability and symbols. One day the World Trade Center site will bear the traces of its history - not just the epochal events, but also the pettier chronicle of craven compromises, showdowns and power plays." Newsday 02/06/05

Indian Art Market Soars "Over the past 18 months, prices for modern Indian art have been rocketing. In New York, auctions of modern Indian art which were making less than $700,000 four years ago are now making more than $2.5 million. Saffronart's last sale made $2.8 million." The Telegraph (UK) 02/07/05

Workers Vote To Strike UK Museums Workers at three UK museums have voted to go on strike. "Hundreds of staff are set to walk out on a one-day strike during the week beginning 14 February, to coincide with the school half-term holidays. London's Science Museum, the National Railway Museum in York and the National Museum of Photography Film and Television, Bradford, will all be hit. Staff have rejected a 2.5% pay offer, which unions say was below inflation and derisory." BBC 02/06/05

China Asks US For Art Import Restrictions The Chinese government has asked the US to restrict import of Chinese art predating 1912. "The request, made last September under the 1970 Unesco Convention, seeks assistance in protecting Chinese cultural heritage, which China says is increasingly subject to pillage and smuggling. It has elicited objections from both the US market and scholars, and faces an uphill battle to gain approval." The Art Newspaper 02/04/05

Hirst's Shark Deteriorating Damien Hirst’s shark floating in a tank of formaldehyde was recently sold for $12 million. But "the shark has deteriorated noticeably to the naked eye since it was first unveiled at the Saatchi Gallery in 1992. The formaldehyde solution in which it is suspended is murky while the skin of the animal is showing signs of wear and tear." The Art Newspaper 02/04/05

When Did Philly Get So Tall? Philadelphia has long been an architectural throwback by American standards - a huge but almost entirely horizontal city of rowhouses and sprawling urban landscapes, with only a few towering skyscrapers marking its colonial-era downtown. But a new round of development is threatening to take the city vertical, and while residents and historians are understandably wary of becoming just another overcrowded concrete jungle, there may be some virtue in the towers now rising in the city center. "The new skyscrapers are a largely stylish and urbane group - especially compared with designs in other downtowns. Despite some clumsy assemblages of historical parts, most have the virtue of clean, sleek lines. A few even aspire to artful design." Philadlephia Inquirer 02/06/05

All That, And They Probably Want A Winning Record, Too Baseball stadiums don't generally have the architectural cachet of, say, museums or skyscrapers. But if you consider how many people are directly affected by the design of a building, it's hard to top baseball parks in the civic impact department. Washington, D.C. has a new baseball team, of course, and will shortly have a new park to keep it in. The question is, how will the design of the ballpark affect the city, and vice versa? "The park represents a giant architectural and planning opportunity for the nation's capital, a rare chance to build a splendid, 21st-century 'gateway' structure near a major bridge and within site of the Capitol dome. And to help revive a river and a section of the city." Washington Post 02/05/05

Sculptures Or Subdivisions? Hmmmm. Sculptor Richard Serra is in talks with officials in Ontario to save a 1972 work of his that stands in a Toronto suburb. "Its ownership is in some doubt, as is its future. According to some scenarios, developers could well chuck it in the dump to add a few more suburban monster homes... Shift, hidden on a patch of farmland just west of Dufferin St. near King City, was commissioned by Roger Davidson, a leading Canadian collector from a family of land developers who were also lifelong supporters of the Art Gallery of Ontario." Serra has a history of fiercely defending any of his sculptures which are threatened with removal. Toronto Star 02/05/05

Moscow Biennale Kicks Off Amid Sighs Of Relief The Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art, a monthlong extravaganza designed to revive Russia as a center of modern art, launched last week, the first such festival to be held in Russia since the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union. "Until the biennial actually opened, there were doubts that it would. Although the project was more than a year in the planning, its exhibitions were selected and installed in a desperate scramble, its organizers and curators having encountered innumerable obstacles, not the least the conservatism of Russia's cultural bureaucracies." The New York Times 02/05/05

New Library Takes Wing In Minneapolis A new Cesar Pelli-designed central library is rising in downtown Minneapolis, and residents are beginning to wonder about the thoroughly modern design, particularly how it will fit in in a city not known for its bold architectural tastes. Everyone's first question: what exactly is that giant wing floating above the avenue? "Is it a giant letter opener? A paper airplane? A loading dock from Star Wars?" Actually, it's just supposed to make you look at it. "The library lacks a grand entrance, so the wing acts as a spectacle that announces its presence." St. Paul Pioneer Press 02/05/05

Sotheby's To Auction Off Versace Collection "The art collection of murdered fashion designer Gianni Versace could fetch up to $17m when it is auctioned in New York and London later this year. Among the pictures for sale are works by Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol and Henri Matisse... The auction, at Sotheby's, will feature 45 contemporary, impressionist and 19th Century paintings. One of the highlights of the sale is Roy Lichtenstein's Blue Nude which has been given an estimate of $3.4m." BBC 02/04/05

What Happened To Design At MoMA? Nicolai Ourousoff laments the place of design in the new Museum of Modern Art. "Whether because of a loss of imagination or the distraction of a high-profile $858 million building project, the department was already losing momentum before the museum closed for renovation five years ago. The reopening of the architecture and design galleries was an opportunity to reclaim, even trumpet, the museum's role in shaping the conversation about architecture. Instead, the department has limited itself to passively documenting current architectural trends." The New York Times 02/04/05

• MoMA And The Corporate Art The Museum of Modern Art presnts a show of art donated to the museum by corporations. Roberta Smith isn't impressed. "Not a good sign, you might say. It certainly deflates the heightened commitment to cutting-edge art that the Modern so emphatically telegraphed with its new design and distribution of display space." This is a stopgap show thrown together without a soul. "With the majority of the art dating from the late 1970's to the early 90's, the show feels redundant and familiar, as if it were all purchased inside a few square blocks of SoHo during the last art boom." The New York Times 02/04/05

Cleveland Museum Director Steps Down Katharine Reid is stepping down as director of the Cleveland Museum of Art after five years in the job. Reid's surprise announcement comes "a month before trustees are to vote on going ahead with a major expansion and renovation. She said she was stepping down for personal reasons and in the best interests of the museum. She wants to give the institution a chance to find fresh leadership if it begins a construction project that could last five years or more." The Plain Dealer (Cleveland) 02/02/05

What Contemporary Art In New York Looks Like A team of curators has been tramping all over New York for the past twn months looking for art that represents the city. "From more than 2,400 submissions, museum directors and curators will choose the work of 175 artists who they say best capture the city's contemporary art scene for "Greater New York 2005," a giant survey show opening on March 13 at P.S. 1. For curators, the studio forays are an exercise in discovery - a chance to break away from the routine of organizing exhibitions by proven names. For the artists, they are a nail-biting exercise, not unlike a callback audition for an Off Broadway production." The New York Times 02/03/05

Europe's Big Museums Hurt As Governments Pinch Pennies "Europe's flagship museums -- the Uffizi, the Musee du Louvre in Paris, and the British Museum in London -- are feeling the pinch. Thrifty governments facing European Union deficit limits are capping cultural handouts and compelling museums to make money on the side by seeking sponsors, hiring out halls and selling snacks and knickknacks. As a result, even as museums draw record crowds -- the Louvre hosted 6 million visitors last year, half the turnout at EuroDisney, Europe's largest theme park -- they increasingly rely on sponsors." Bloomberg.com 02/02/05

Seattle Gallery Owners Upset Over "Conceptual" Art Thefts Art stolen from Seattle galleries that was presumably going to be part of a conceptual show has gallery owners unhappy. "There's real money involved and real reputations. We reconfigured our space to make sure the front room is always visible to staff and spent a lot of time worrying if we needed a better security system. We felt like saps who couldn't keep an eye on the art." Seattle Post-Intelligencer 02/01/05

Sanctuary Vs. Urban Sanction "Burning Man's renowned temple-builder, David Best, was one day from completing a towering art project dedicated to the day laborers in San Rafael's canal district when the city decided it was all too much. 'The Chapel of the Laborer,' a small-scale version of the respected plywood structures that Best builds for the weeklong festival in the Nevada desert and then burns in remembrance of the dead, was to be a temporary sanctuary where Latinos could gather, pray or light a candle for loved ones... But this week the city received a complaint and ordered Best to stop construction immediately. Yellow caution tape now lines the front of the 30- foot-tall structure, and a stop-work order sits near the Virgin Mary's hand." San Francisco Chronicle 02/02/05

National Gallery Goes Digital "Interactive displays have been a part of museum and galleries for about two decades but have rarely been successful at augmenting the whole visiting experience... [London's] National Gallery hopes it can change all that with its new service ArtStart. Visitors can search the entire 2,300-strong collection of the gallery and view pictures that have been digitised on a 100 megapixel camera. The captured images are not displayed in their full glory - that would take up too much storage space - but visitors can zoom in on any section of any painting." BBC 02/02/05

Stealing Art As Art Last summer artwork began disappearing out of galleries and houses in Seattle. Some of it was reported stolen, some not. But it turns out the thefts were part of an art project, an "art show that never happened. The proposed show—called the Repo Show—was to include works by more than a dozen artists, all stolen from galleries and homes by an art collective called Fillistine. The idea, as they described it to us, was to steal the work, then invite the artists to come retrieve it from a local gallery at a one-night, public 'opening'.” The Stranger (Seattle) 02/01/05

Neighbors Protest Whitney Expansion Plan Neighbors of the Whitney turn up at a public meeting to protest a recently announced expansion plan. But "a well-organized contingent of artists, architects and museum directors who support the expansion, designed by the architect Renzo Piano, countered their arguments. Among them were the painter Chuck Close, the sculptor Mark di Suvero, architects like Maya Lin, and museum directors including Philippe de Montebello of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Glenn D. Lowry of the Museum of Modern Art." The New York Times 02/02/05

Art Fair Agnostic The big corporate art fairs are a triumph. Of what? Jerry Saltz says start with the money: "Welcome to the branded and marketed art world of 2005. Maybe it's always been this way, but it's certainly more so now. These days art fairs are perfect storms of money, marketability, and instant gratification—tent-city casinos where art is shipped in and parked for five days, while spectators gawk as comped V.I.P.s and shoppers roll the dice for all to see. And in this game, everybody plays: artists, dealers, and buyers." Village Voice 02/01/05