Wednesday October 31

NEW MANHATTAN MUSEUM FOR GERMAN ART: New York has a new "personal" museum in a class with the Frick Collection and the Morgan Library. It's the Neue Galerie which was conceived, funded, and overseen to the last detail by cosmetics millionaire Ronald Lauder. "The Neue Galerie [is] devoted entirely to German and Austrian fine and decorative arts." The New York Times 10/31/01 (one-time registration required for access)

TYRANNY OF INTERNATIONALISM: Are contemporary Egyptian artists being stifled because foreigners control the country's art business? "If the most active of these galleries are owned by foreigners, who have been accused of monopolizing modern art to fit their images, is the trend to promote art forms that are totally foreign to Egypt and Egyptian artists, forms that focus on denying national identity in favor of an international one?" Egypt Today 10/29/01

JAPANESE MUSEUM DIRECTOR FINED FOR BRIBES: The former vice-director of a Japanese museum has been fined 9.2 million yen ($75,000) for accepting bribes from the head of an art sales company. The fine is equal to the amount of the alleged bribe. Mainichi Shimbun 10/30/01

BERLIN HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL BEGINS: "The first symbolic spadeful of earth has been removed from a huge site in central Berlin set aside to commemorate the six million Jews who died in the Nazi Holocaust. The memorial - a vast field of nearly 3,000 concrete columns - is to be built near the Brandenburg Gate and the site of Hitler's wartime bunker." BBC 10/31/01

Tuesday October 30

BRITISH MUSEUM CRISIS: "The museum’s deficit last year was just over £3 million and there would have been a similar deficit this year, unless drastic action had been taken. The cuts will lead to shorter opening hours, a rota of closed galleries, cancellation of exhibitions, reduced building maintenance, a reduction of education programmes, a freeze on most new posts, and the requirement for foreign borrowing institutions to meet the full costs of loans, including curatorial time." The Art Newspaper 10/29/01

ITALIAN PRIVATIZATION SCHEME CRITICIZED: Members of a left-wing coalition in the Italian parliament are blasting a plan by the Berlusconi government to privatize the nation's art museums. Those in charge of the plan are defending it, pointing out that "the public sector would retain responsibility for exhibitions and the protection of cultural assets." BBC 10/30/01

TATE BRITAIN EXPANSION OPENS: "The Prince of Wales will open art gallery Tate Britain's £32.3m centenary development on Tuesday. The project, the most significant change to the gallery since it opened in 1897, gives it a modern entrance, with 10 new and five refurbished exhibition spaces all built into the neo-classical structure." BBC 10/30/01

TALE OF TWO MUSEUMS: The Milwaukee Art Museum's new Calatrava-designed extension is "a spectacular building that has nothing to do with the display of art and everything to do with getting crowds to come to the museum." By contrast, St. Louis' new Pulitzer Foundation Museum has "created one of the finest small museums of our time." The New Yorker 10/29/01

BELLAGIO PULLS BACK ON ART: Las Vegas' Bellagio Hotel has reportedly canceled exhibitions at its art gallery, and some are wondering if the experiment with fine art at the hotel is over. "The Bellagio has cited reduced tourist business as a reason for cutting back on its exhibitions in the Bellagio Gallery of Fine Art, a two-room exhibition space located between snack bars and marriage chapels in the mammoth resort. Business has fallen to the extent that some 15,000 to 20,000 Las Vegas casino employees have been laid off." The Art Newspaper 10/29/01

PELLI PAC DESIGN DERIDED AS UNIMAGINATIVE: When the Orange County (CA) Performing Arts Center hired world-renowned architect Cesar Pelli to design its new concert hall, hopes were high that what had been a second-rate suburban performance space could rise to the level of its Los Angeles competitors. But Pelli's design, unveiled this month, doesn't offer much in the way of distinction or creativity. Los Angeles Times 10/30/01

HERITAGE RANKING? The Australian Democratic Party unveils its cultural policy platform - one priority will be to ask for a World Heritage listing for the Sydney Opera House, joining other landmarks like the Taj Mahal. The Australian 10/30/01

Monday October 29

A HOME FOR THE PARTHENON MARBLES: Britain still has not said it has any plans to return the Parthenon marbles to Greece. But evidently the Greeks think they will get them back. "A £29 million Acropolis museum has already been commissioned by the Greek government to house the 2,300-year-old artefacts. Plans for the building, which will stand at the foot of the Acropolis hill are understood to include a glass gallery with windows or roof designed so that the marbles can be seen against the background of the Parthenon." The Guardian (UK) 10/26/01

MONUMENTAL MEMORIES: How do we as a society remember important events such as the WTC attacks? "In the last few decades, the reliability of memory, particularly traumatic memory, has been questioned. But while individual memory is under fire, collective memory is being hotly pursued. A public memorial or a ruin is a scaffold, something on which collective memory can hang. But that does not mean that it helps people remember things. With his concept of sites of memory, the French editor Pierre Nora has argued that monuments are built in place of memory." New York Times 10/27/01 (one-time registration required for access)

MURAL CLASH: Artist Mike McNeilly is suing the city of Los Angeles for making him take down a 10-story-high patriotic mural hanging from the side of a building. McNeilly says his free-speech rights have been violated. The city says the banner violates a city ban on new billboards and that the artist “cynically took advantage of the national tragedy to further his financial interests by putting up this mural.” FreedomForum 10/26/01

SAME BY EXTENSION: The new extension of the Tate Britain Museum is about to open. "A huge hole has been sliced into the side of the old Tate. New galleries have been dropped in. And do you know? It is quite possible that some people won't even notice." Sunday Times (UK) 10/29/01

TEMPLATE FOR FAILURE: The British government had the idea for a "Millennium Village" to make a "template" for design in the 21st Century. So it "staged an international competition for a masterplan that would combine private and social housing, which would set new standards in sustainability and which would put a premium on architectural quality. But like everything else that the Dome has touched, the village has not turned out as advertised. The project has been beset by delays in construction and the resignation of one of the original architects after bitter claims that the innovative aspects of their designs were being diluted out of existence by the developers." The Observer (UK) 10/28/01

FAMILY MATTERS: "The death of the billionaire aesthete Daniel Wildenstein has brought to an end the most revealing chapter so far in the history of perhaps the world’s wealthiest, most secretive family of art dealers." The Times (UK) 10/26/01

THE PICASSO VIRUS: In a remarkable new book, Picasso, My Grandfather, to be published on November 8, Marina Picasso describes how each member of the family became dependent on and cravenly submissive to Picasso's towering ego. 'The Picasso virus to which we fell victim was subtle and undetectable," she says. "It was a combination of promises not kept, abuse of power, mortification, contempt and, above all, incommunicability. We were defenceless against it'." Sunday Times (UK) 10/28/01

Sunday October 28

LOUVRE REOPENS AFTER STRIKE: Striking workers at the Louvre agreed to suspend their strike and reopen the museum. "The museum is one of many Paris tourist sites – including the Orsay Museum and the Arc de Triomphe – that have been closed due to a 20-day-old strike by Culture Ministry workers. At times during strike, Louvre workers have let visitors in free as part of the protest, but it was closed for eight straight days before Saturday's opening." Dallas Morning News (AP) 10/27/01

BUILDING TOGETHER: They don't have any official power or a mandate from any governmental agency. But a Who's Who coalition of real estate executive and architectural firms have banded together since the September 11 attack on New York with the aim of coming up with a plan for rebuilding Lower Manhattan. It's a remarkable and improbable response that speaks volumes about building in the Big City. New York Times 10/27/01 (one-time registration required for access)

LATIN AMERICA'S NEW STORY: A Major new museum of Latin American art opens in Buenos Aires. "Art scholars say the privately funded museum is among the most comprehensive of a handful of institutions dedicated to the major artists who documented the divine lunacy of Latin America in the 20th century. Indeed, most museums in the region tend to stress national greats alongside a smattering of European artists; Chilean museums stick largely to Chilean art, Uruguayan museums to Uruguayan painters. But the new museum here reaches farther, seeking to capture Latin America's diverse societies in one broad stroke." Washington Post 10/28/01

TAXING ART: The British tax department has been accepting artwork in lieu of taxeds, including a rare Van Dyck. "The Van Dyck drawing, The Grand Procession of the Order of the Garter, was commissioned by King Charles I for a palace tapestry in 1638, was accepted in lieu of $5 million in taxes. The government's Culture department did not reveal who owned the Van Dyck, but Christie's auction house said it negotiated the exchange in lieu of tax on the estate of the 10th Duke of Rutland, whose family acquired it in 1787." Nando Times (AP 10/26/01

Friday October 26

CZECH ART BAN: The Czech government has ordered a ban on transport of any artwork out of the country. The government is being sued for $500 million by American Ronald Lauder, and officials are worried that Lauder will try to impound state-owned artwork. BBC 10/26/01

BEST TATE: Tate Modern has won the new Prime Minister's Award for best new public building. "Tony Blair praised the gallery for its part in transforming the London borough of Southwark, saying it had achieved a balance of being 'awe-inspiring while still being welcoming and accessible'." BBC 10/26/01

THE MOLLUSK AS CREATIVE ARTIST: "The most comprehensive exhibit ever devoted to pearls, and to the paradoxes of their natural and social history, has just opened at the American Museum of Natural History. There is probably no product on earth that more radically dramatizes the discrepancy between the size of a treasure and its value." The New Yorker 10/29/01

MODERN ART AMONG ANCIENT MONUMENTS: The Istanbul Biennial, which runs through the middle of November, is "one of the most exciting and accessible of the big international art shows. Since 1987 the organisers have invited curators from across the world to come to live in the waterfront city and fill its historic spaces with cutting-edge art." The Economist 10/25/01

Thursday October 25

REMEMBERING THE WTC: The owner of the lease on the World Trade Center site has already begun plans for new buildings there. Meanwhile others are concerned with coming up with a memorial that "not be a footnote to a large development project." The New York Times 10/25/01 (one-time registration required for access)

CHOOSING A CITY'S ART: Toronto businessman Lou Odette has been donating big sculptures (24 so far) to the nearby city of Windsor, which set up a prominent downtown waterfront sculpture garden for the art. "The city has taken flak for allowing Odette to decide what the citizens of Windsor will see on their waterfront promenade, but the mayor countered that beauty is in the eye of the beholder and any debate fosters art appreciation." The Globe & Mail (Canada) 10/24/01

VIEWING GIACOMETTI'S SCULPTURES: "Stand behind them. Examine their backs and peer out over their shoulders, if they have any. (Most of them do; Giacometti was terrific at shoulders.) Gaze into the space into which the figures are gazing. Suddenly you have a sense of how Giacometti's art inhabits the world." The New Yorker 10/22/01

PROMINENT COLLECTOR DIES: "Daniel Wildenstein, one of the world's leading art dealers and collectors whose family owns two prestigious Manhattan galleries, has died, the Wildenstein Institute said Thursday. He was 84." Washington Post (AP) 10/25/01

Wednesday October 24

REGIONAL MUSEUM CRISIS: While London's museum scene is flourishing, regional museums are struggling. A government commission studying the problem says £270 million over five years is required to rescue the regionals. 'The task force has spent nine months interviewing regional directors heartbroken at the state of their museums, and visiting poorly lit galleries with outdated displays or the leaking stores that hold 95% of regional collections." The Guardian (UK) 10/24/01

• MONEY IS CRUCIAL: “If we carry on like this, more museums will have to close, collections will have to move This position is now critical.” The Times (UK) 10/24/01
• PROBLEMS FOR BRISTOL MUSEUMS STAFF: "A roof that leaks into a gallery containing works by Monet and Renoir... backlog of maintenance work... fabric coming off the walls... only 10 per cent of [1.75 million items] on regular display... only one natural history curator to care for more than 600,000 items." The Times (UK) 10/24/01

BUILDING ON UNCONVENTION: The Smithsonian hopes soon to name a new director for the Hirshhorn Museum. He won't be like the old one, a former social studies teacher who had no degrees in art, a man who lunched on Snickers bars and wore rumpled clothes. And that's too bad, because James Demetrion made the Hirshhorn what it is today. Washington Post 10/24/01

SHRINKING ART MARKET: Art dealers worry that the demand for buying art is down. "As perceptions of risk and questions about the need for liquid assets increase, the demand for art might be temporarily reduced. In addition, the huge drop in the stock market this year certainly has reduced the wealth of many potential buyers." The Art Newspaper 10/22/01

MORE CALDER UNCOVERED: Nearly half of Alexander Calder's WTC stabile has been found, which was "easier than it sounds. The metal is about a half-inch thick, and no other major structural element of the World Trade Center has the same dimensions. Also, the bolt-holes that run in a zigzag pattern along the edges of the sculpture make the pieces relatively easy to pick out." NPR 10/22/01

• Previously: CALDER UNBURIED: Pieces of Alexander Calder's giant stabile at the World Trade Center (worth $2.5 million) have been discovered under the buildings' wreckage. The first piece of Bent Propeller a bright red, 25-foot-high, 15-ton sculpture by Philadelphia-born artist Alexander Calder, was removed from the wreckage last Thursday." New York Post 10/17/01

HANGERS ON: In late 18th Century England, the annual summer exhibition at the Royal Academy was the place for an artist's work to be seen. But the particular lighting at the RA and the system of hanging paintings had a major influence on how artists painted. "British artists worked in the knowledge that their pictures would be seen under the specific conditions that prevailed at Somerset House. Unless you understand the hanging system at the Royal Academy, you don't understand how desperate artists were to grab the visitor's attention with dramatic or topical subjects, bright colours, and inventive compositions." The Telegraph (UK) 10/24/01

HOWARD FINSTER, 84: One of the most well-known outsider artists has died. "Finster was considered a pioneer among self-taught artists, advancing the 'outsider' movement with his unique personality, unflagging salesmanship and resolute work ethic. For more than three decades, he traveled Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee preaching at tent revivals and supplementing his income with odd jobs, including plumbing and bicycle repair." MSNBC (AP) 10/23/01

Tuesday October 23

PRIVATIZING ITALY'S MUSEUMS? Italy's new right wing government has plans to privatize the country's museums, including the Ufizzi. The plan assumes that private operators would make a profit, some of which they would pay to the government. Concerned directors from around the world from 37 leading museums - including Philippe de Montebello of the Metropolitan Museum, New York, Thomas Krens of the Guggenheim, New York, Henri Loyrette of the Louvre, Paris and Neil Macgregor of the National Gallery, London have written a letter to the Italian government appealing for it 'to discuss this proposal widely both at home, and to move with due deliberation before transferring the running of the museums to private enterprise'." The Art Newspaper 10/22/01

GEHRY EXPANSION APPROVED IN D.C.: The Corcoran Gallery in Washington, D.C. has approved a scaled-back design by architect Frank Gehry for the gallery's renovation and expansion. Gehry's original proposal was approved two years ago, but cost overruns caused the gallery to ask for a second design. Chicago Tribune 10/23/01

THIS YEAR'S ENDANGERED LIST: The World Monuments Fund (WMF) has announced its 2002 World Monuments Watch List of 100 Most Endangered Sites. The list is intended to draw attention to world historical sites that are in danger. "In an unprecedented move, the organisation notched the list up to 101 sites with the addition of Historic Lower Manhattan" as some of the area's historic landmarks were damaged in the September 11 attack. The Art Newspaper 10/22/01

Monday October 22

WILL SELL ART FOR FOOD: Britain's museums have a lamentable record of selling national art treasures when they need to raise money. "Now a foundation in London has decided to defy this trend and sell works worth up to £3 million to finance a new home for its collection." The Telegraph (UK) 10/22/01

MAKING OUT IN MUSEUMS: A new study says that 20 percent of Italians going to museums have had an erotic experience there. "According to the study, a Caravaggio painting or a Greek sculpture is more likely to lead to sex than works by Tiepolo or Veronese. The experts have even compiled a hit parade of Italian museums, listing the institutions in order of their ability to awaken Eros." ARTNews 10/01

THE UTILITY OF ART: What turns a ceramic pot or plate into a work of art? What transforms a utilitarian object into something artistic? The Guardian (UK) 10/21/01

Sunday October 21

FASHIONABLY ARCHITECTURAL: Why have architects become today's hot artists? "Today, international fashion magazines relentlessly plug the latest architectural enfant terrible, fashion houses seek out architects for their avant-garde credentials, and the architectural profession in general has an energy and cachet that must make even the most successful haut couture designer green with envy. Who would have thought that architecture and fashion would ever make such cozy companions?" Los Angeles Times 10/21/01

REBELLING AGAINST ROYAL'S RODINS: The Royal Ontario Museum was planning a big international Rodin symposium coinciding with the controversial Rodin sculpture show the museum is currently hosting. But while "last month the ROM mailed dozens of letters to Rodin scholars and buffs around the world, inviting them to the Ontario capital to weigh in on the legacy of the sculptor," almost no one has agreed to come. The Globe & Mail (Canada) 10/20/01

THE SCIENCE OF IMAGES: "To many of us who are not in the sciences, pictures like the Hubble images or the Visual Human Project have seemed like the last refuge of photographic 'truth' in the current flood of image doubts." But even scientific images, often depended upon as a way of solving problems, may not be so purely truthful in the digital age. The New York Times 10/21/01 (one-time registration required for access)

ART AFTER WAR: "In the aftermath of the Sept. 11 catastrophes and the subsequent anthrax attacks, some Americans have responded by making art. Much of it is impromptu and transitory, driven by an impulse to eulogize the missing, the murdered and the heroic. New York City is the epicenter of this effusion, as it should be." Philadelphia Inquirer 10/21/01

PUTTING MILWAUKEE ON THE MAP: The Milwaukee Art Museum opened its big new addition last week. It is "the bird that puts Milwaukee on the map - an enormous moveable sunshade that constitutes the most dramatic feature of Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava's stunning addition to the Milwaukee Art Museum. To watch this kinetic sculpture unfold, to see its white steel fins rise from a steeply pitched, glass-walled reception hall and then turn into a pair of softly curving arcs that suggest a bird taking flight, is to witness a thing of pure, exhilarating joy." Chicago Tribune 10/21/01

Friday October 19

ANSEL ADAMS CENTER CLOSING: The Friends of Photography, founded by Adams, is folding because of debt. "The center's collection of 140 Ansel Adams photographs printed by Adams in the 1970s expressly for the Friends will be sold, and the proceeds will go to erasing the debt." San Francisco Chronicle 10/18/01

MUSEUM DOMAIN: The new web domain address .museum should be working by November. The domain is reserved only for museums, and "will provide a home on the Internet for those who work to make our museums such great cultural assets." CNet (Reuters) 10/18/01

THE ART OF CLEANING: A cleaner picking up a London gallery, mistakenly gathered up and threw out an installation by Damien Hirst. He "came across a pile of beer bottles, coffee cups and overflowing ashtrays and cleared them away at the Eyestorm Gallery on Wednesday morning." BBC 10/19/01

WHEN DESIGN OVERTAKES ART: Hard to find anyone who isn't ready to anoint Frank Gehry as a master artist. "Why all the hoopla? Is this designer of metallic museums and curvy concert halls, luxury houses and flashy corporate headquarters truly Our Greatest Living Artist? The notion is telling, for it points to the new centrality of architecture in cultural discourse. This centrality stems from the initial debates about postmodernism in the 1970s, which were focused on architecture, but it is clinched by the contemporary inflation of design and display in all sorts of spheres: art, fashion, business and so on." Los Angeles Times 10/14/01

QUEEN TO AUSTRALIA - IT'S MY PAINTING: It's Australia's centennial this year, and Victoria's premier wrote to Queen Elizabeth asking her to give Tom Roberts' historic painting, The Big Picture, back to Australia. The painting commemorates the opening of Australia's first parliament in 1901. But the Queen turned down the request, saying "the painting was given to her great-grandfather and giving it back 'would not seem to be appropriate'." The Advertiser (Australia) 10/19/01

BERLIN AS URBAN REBUILD: If New York is looking to rebuild its skyline, perhaps it ought to look to Berlin. "The infinitely resilient burghers of Berlin have been doing so for more than half a century, starting in the aftermath of World War II and then starting over again following the collapse of the Wall and the regimes that built and backed it. Rarely in modern times have there been reconstruction projects as far-reaching or lavishly funded as those of post-apocalyptic Berlin, and never have they been so fraught with symbolism or, in recent years, so wrought with soul-searching." New York Review of Books 11/01/01

Thursday October 18

CALDER UNBURIED: Pieces of Alexander Calder's giant stabile at the World Trade Center (worth $2.5 million) have been discovered under the buildings' wreckage. The first piece of Bent Propeller a bright red, 25-foot-high, 15-ton sculpture by Philadelphia-born artist Alexander Calder, was removed from the wreckage last Thursday." New York Post 10/17/01

TREASURE UNDER LONDON: Somewhere buried under The Strand in London lies a city of broken Greek and Roman statues, altars and sarcophagi. "These fractured deities and marble tablets are the last undiscovered fragment of the collection amassed by the 14th Earl of Arundel, the first Englishman to be bitten by 'Marble Mania'." London Evening Standard 10/18/01

THE SINKING OF VENICE: By studying 100 paintings by Canaletto, researchers have determined how much the sea has risen in Venice (or how much Venice has sunk, depending on your perspective). "His works offer a record of where the high tide marks lay during his life, from 1697 to 1768. Those show that the sea has since risen by 80cm (31in) – an average of 2.8mm (just over an inch) every year." The Independent (UK) 10/17/01

BRAZILIAN ALTAR FINALLY REACHES THE GOOG: After intervention by priests, diplomats, and politicians, a court injunction was lifted, and an ornate 18th-century gilded wooded altar will go on display at the New York Gugenheim Museum tomorrow. A Brazilian court had blocked shipment of the piece to New York after the September 11 terrorist attack. The Art Newspaper 10/18/01

Wednesday October 17

GEHRY DESIGN TO BE DEBATED: "Two years ago, after an intense, highly publicized international competition, the Corcoran Gallery and College of Art [in Washington, D.C.] anointed Frank O. Gehry -- the most heralded architect of the late 20th century -- as the designer of its ambitious new wing. Tomorrow, at a meeting of the Fine Arts Commission, Gehry's unconventional concept will face its first major test." Washington Post 10/17/01

EGYPTIAN ARTIFACTS UNEARTHED: "A Japanese team of archeologists has discovered a number of statues of pharaonic gods and kings, according to the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism. The statues in Abu Sir, 21 miles south of Cairo, included one of the falcon-headed god Horus as a headgear-wearing child with a finger in his mouth, according to Gaballa Ali Gaballa, Egypt's antiquities chief. Also unearthed were fragments of statues with hieroglyphic s dating back to the time of King Pepi I in the 6th Dynasty." Boston Globe (AP) 10/17/01

A MUSEUM REPERTORY: "Strangely, the idea of repertory is rarely discussed in relation to the art museum. Yet for anybody who goes to the Metropolitan Museum of Art on a regular basis and looks at El Greco's View of Toledo or Watteau's Mezzetin or Bruegel's Harvesters or the Rembrandts or the Vermeers the experience can be very much like going to Coppélia or La Bohème or a Mozart piano concerto. You crave a known experience and also want to see how your feelings about that experience have changed. An opera or symphony can be interpreted in so many different ways that it sometimes seems like an entirely new or different work. A painting or sculpture also appears very different at different times, depending on how it's presented, for presentation is a form of interpretation." The New Republic 10/16/01

REIMAGINING LOWER MANHATTAN: A coalition of some of America's best architectural firms have got together to envision a replacement for the World Trade Center. "If nothing else, the terrorist attack demanded that New York architects bring themselves up to speed on issues of critical importance to any serious discussion of the city's future. The international flow of currency and information. Access to public, private, and cyber space. Architecture's roots in military fortifications. The convergence of our own technology — tall buildings and airplanes — in terrorist warfare. The nature of risk." The New York Times 10/14/01 (one-time registration required for access)

Tuesday October 16

TOWERING MEANING: Los Angeles' Watts Towers just reopened after a restoration job that took 13 years. Restoration still doesn't mean anyone knows what the towers mean. "Depending on whom you talk to, they are the most sacred of relics or the most profane. In short, they have become the ideal blank canvas on which people can project whatever aesthetic, social or ethical statement they like, Disneyland contrivances or profound utterances from the collective unconscious." The New York Times 10/16/01 (one-time registration required for access)

PAYING OFF ON ART: "If you had started collecting contemporary British art a decade ago, when the YBAs were fresh out of college, your collection, amassed for a few thousand, could now be worth millions. Some collections were started for only a crown or two - Damien Hirst and Tracey Emin's dentist accepted art in lieu of payment for dental work they had done." London Evening Standard 10/16/01

THE SHOPPING MALL CHALLENGE: Daniel Libeskind is one of today's hottest architects. His Jewish Museum in Berlin just opened to acclaim. "But he has no desire to be pigeonholed as an architect for 'difficult' projects. He believes that his approach is equally valid for more everyday buildings and to prove it is designing a new shopping centre on the edge of Berne in Switzerland. It is a project that has shocked some Libeskind fans, but the architect is unrepentant." The Telegraph (UK) 10/16/01

CHEATING ON ART: "The narrative of Western art since the Renaissance might have appeared to have been fairly well mapped out - although the attribution of a picture might be disputed here, the meaning of an image challenged there. Now along comes David Hockney - not even an academic, but a practising artist - and suggests that some old masters as early as the 15th century were employing a form of proto-photography as an aid to painting." The Telegraph (UK) 10/16/01

MAKING MODERN MATTER: When Nicholas Serota became director of the Tate, contemporary art was seen as a problem in England. "Serota's efforts have transformed us into a nation that cares about contemporary art, and it is one of his proudest achievements." London Evening Standard 10/16/01

THE DIRECTOR COMPLAINS: When Australia's National Gallery director Dr Brian Kennedy appointed John McDonald as head of the museum's Australian Art, it was a controversial decision. But a few months after the September 2000 appointment, Kennedy regretted the appointment. He outlined his grievances in a five-page memo... Sydney Morning Herald 10/16/01

ARCHIVED AFGHANI ART: The Taliban have systematically destroyed the art and culture of Afghanistan over the past seven years. The Art Newspaper chronicled the destruction in a series of articles, now archived online. The Art Newspaper 10/16/01

Monday October 15

BRITISH MUSEUM RETURNS STATUE: A man offered to sell the British Museum a stolen ancient Egyptian statue. Instead of buying it, the museum took it and returned it to Egypt after turning the man over to Scotland Yard. The Times (UK) 10/15/01

HERMITAGE - PLANS FOR WORLD DOMINATION: "Although the Hermitage welcomed about 2.4 million visitors last year, the administration is dissatisfied even with this impressive figure and is looking for ways to reach a wider audience. Last fall, Somerset House in London became home to the Hermitage Rooms. Last summer, the museum joined forces with the New York Guggenheim Foundation to bring more contemporary art to the Hermitage, as well as to hold joint exhibitions with museums around the world. One of these, the Hermitage Guggenheim Museum in Las Vegas, opened earlier this month. In the meantime, the museum is preparing to open another exhibition center in Amsterdam." St. Petersburg Times (Russia) 10/12/01

ALL ABOUT THE AESTHETICS: The Cleveland Museum of Art got its first look at what might be expected from the architect they've hired to oversee a massive renovation and expansion, and Rafael Vinoly promised something unlike anything they have seen before. The designer behind, among other buildings, the Tokyo Forum, Vinoly "can create quiet poetry in earth-hugging buildings that seem to melt into the landscape." The Plain Dealer (Cleveland) 10/15/01

FASHIONABLE ART: "There has never been a time when fashion has done more to suggest that it might be art. Fashion is parasitic. It depends on other art forms for its imagery and its identity. And it's been so successful at it that it has begun to replace them." The Observer (UK) 10/14/01

SCOTTISH ART WAR: "Glasgow's cash-strapped museums and galleries, funded solely by the city, are the most visited museums outside London. But there is resentment that Edinburgh's 'national' galleries receive the lion's share of government support. Despite having 1m fewer visitors than Glasgow's museums, Edinburgh's have been awarded £20 million in government grants." Sunday Times (UK) 10/14/01

Sunday October 14

LOOKING FOR THE EXCITING YOUNG ARCHITECTS: What is it about America that it refuses to entrust important building projects to promising young architects? Many European countries provide subsidies and professional courtesies to the younger set, and the architecture in these countries is more adventurous and wide-ranging as a result. In the U.S., however, architects are practically geriatric before they even begin to get called for high-profile jobs. Boston Globe 10/14/01

BRING ON THE NUDES: Conventional wisdom has long held that Victorian-era Britons were, and there's no nice way to put this, fairly prudish. Downright puritanical, in fact. Well, guess again: "As a new exhibition at Tate Britain will demonstrate, the Victorian era was one in which representations of the naked human form were highly visible, endlessly reproduced, widely circulated and eagerly consumed." The Daily Telegraph (UK) 10/13/01

LO, HOW A ROSE E'ER BLOOMING: "The discovery that the remains of Shakespeare's Rose Theatre are in a reasonable condition has led to calls for more to be spent on excavating the site... It is the only Elizabethan theatre left in the world of which there are substantial remains." BBC 10/14/01

Friday October 12

MAYBE THE ART MARKET IS UP: A portrait by Gustav Klimt from the late 1890's, "Portrait of a Lady in Red," drew heavy bidding from both sides of the Atlantic, finally selling for $4 million, more than twice its expected price. BBC 10/12/01

V&A'S NEW MAN SPEAKS: The Victoria & Albert Museum in London got a new director a few months back. Not that you would have noticed, since Mark Jones likes to keep a low profile. But his tastes and preferences for the future of the V&A are gradually becoming known. "Mr Jones emerges as a an enthusiast for the proposed extension by Daniel Libeskind known as the Spiral, which has been hanging fire since 1995 for lack of funding. He is also embarking on yet another major internal reorganisation." The Art Newspaper 10/09/01

LAYOFFS COMING AT AUCTION BIGS: "Bracing for a period of unpredictable sales and revenue, Sotheby's and Christie's announced significant layoffs in their worldwide staffs this week." The New York Times 10/12/01 (one-time registration required for access)

• A QUIETER WAY TO SELL: "The Sept. 11 attack and its aftermath are having an effect on the way some collectors are choosing to sell their art... For years both Sotheby's and Christie's have been quietly offering clients an alternative to auctions. Acting like dealers, the auction houses use their international contacts to offer art to collectors they think would be interested. Also like dealers the auction houses collect a fee for making the sale." The New York Times 10/12/01 (one-time registration required for access)

THE NEW WINGED MUSEUM IN MILWAUKEE: Sunday is the official opening of wing-like steel sunshade which crowns the new addition to the Milwaukee Art Museum. The whole project came in at around $100 million, and was the first US job by Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava. It may come to define the city. If nothing else, it's quadrupled attendance at the museum this year. Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel 10/12/01

TOO DIRTY FOR THE SUBWAY: "About 350 years after Sir Peter Lely painted her, the Countess of Oxford is still a scandalous woman. Although her bare breasted image adorns the poster, invitations and catalogue cover of the exhibition Painted Ladies at the National Portrait Gallery, she has been judged too extreme for London Underground." The Guardian (UK) 10/11/01

NO, HE WON'T BE WRAPPING HELMUT KOHL: "Six years after conquering Berlin by wrapping the Reichstag, Bulgarian-born artist Christo and his French wife, Jeanne-Claude, return to the city for two shows, one big, one small." The Art Newspaper 10/09/01

Thursday October 11

KLIMT DRAWINGS UP FOR GRABS: "The art auction world's favourite fairy tale is the stranger who walks in off the street with an unknown masterpiece tucked under his arm. It has happened at Christie's: the stranger was carrying a portfolio of 17 drawings by Gustav Klimt, never seen by anyone except the artist and the stranger's grandfather who had purchased them." The collection will be auctioned this week. The Guardian (UK) 10/10/01

• HUGHES COLLECTION ON THE BLOCK: Frederick Hughes is best known as the business manager of the late Andy Warhol, but he was also one of the world's foremost art collectors. His complete collection is up for auction at Sotheby's New York, and is expected to fetch upwards of $2 million. BBC 10/10/01

NEW HEAD OF SCOTLAND MUSEUMS: Dr. Gordon Rintoul, who was chief executive of Sheffield Galleries, has been appointed as the new director of the National Museums of Scotland, effective February 2002. He succeeds Mark Jones, who left for the Victoria and Albert in London. The Herald (Scotland) 10/11/01

Wednesday October 10

TRYING TO SAVE A CULTURAL HERITAGE: The position of Afghanistan's Taliban rulers on the place of art in their society was made abundantly clear earlier this year with the destruction by rocket launcher of the giant Bamiyan Buddhas carved into an Afghan mountainside. As most of the world watched helpless, one man actually tried to buy the Buddhas from the Taliban in an effort to preserve them. His bid failed, but Ikuo Hirayama remains one of the world's foremost advocates for Asian culture and art. The Art Newspaper 10/08/01

THE POEM, THE TEMPLE, THE PEOPLE: The temple at Angkor Wat incorporates a poem which has never been translated into English, and never before been the subject of academic study. Now it is being studied, and translated; it's expected to reveal much about the history and culture of the Khmer people, going back to the twelfth century. Humanities (NEH) October 01

THE ART OF DOCUMENTED HORROR: "Photojournalists, professionally intimate with tragedy and its aftermath, have brought extraordinary images back from the hell downtown. Thoughtful, tough, full of feeling, and startlingly beautiful, their pictures have both fixed and shaped our experience of an event that even those who lived through it can't quite comprehend." Village Voice 10/09/01

REMBRANDT'S WOMEN: "Rembrandt's treatment of women - in paint, not in the flesh, though that seems to have been dismal enough - sharply divided his contemporaries. The debate proves that there is nothing contemporary about the argument over body fascism and the cult of the anorexic model." A new U.K. exhibition attempts to make sense of the arguments on all sides. The Guardian (UK) 10/09/01

SERRANO COMES TO BRITAIN: The man whose art helped cause one of America's most notorious political dogfights, Andres Serrano, is being exhibited in London this month, and critics there are showing no mercy. Free speech advocates in the U.S. championed Serrano's photography when Congressional leaders used it as fodder for their crusade against public arts funding, but in the opinions of several U.K. writers, "he is a third-rate artist, a man who has nothing interesting, important or original to say about the subjects he treats." The Daily Telegraph (UK) 10/10/01

Tuesday October 9

UK DEALERS DOING JUST FINE: "Reports filed by the leading 113 fine art and antique companies in Great Britain for the 1999/2000 period paint a picture of healthy performance, with an average growth of 9.3% in pre-tax profits and 3% in sales." The Art Newspaper 10/08/01

BAD TIMING FOR AMBITIOUS QUEBEC: Two days before it was to begin, the most ambitious attempt ever to export Canadian culture to the U.S. was scuttled by, well, you know. "In the wake of the attack, virtually all of Quebec-New York 2001 was cancelled; a massive undertaking that had been two years in planning fell victim to ill-fated timing, dealing a body blow to the Quebec government's scheme to raise its cultural profile in the United States." The Globe & Mail (Toronto) 10/09/01

NEW HEADACHES FOR TRAVELING SHOWS: While dealers and collectors consider the impact terrorism will have on art prices, exhibitors face one clear-cut fact: It will be increasingly difficult and expensive to organize traveling exhibitions. Owners will be reluctant to loan their works, and handling, guarding, shipping, and insuring art will all be more complex, time-consuming, and costly. The Art Newspaper 10/09/01

HERB BLOCK, 91: Herbert L. Block, whose "Herblock" signature marked scathing political cartoons for more than 60 years, died in Washington. He won three Pulitzer Prizes, and shared a fourth. For more than 50 years, he was read - and often feared - at the breakfast tables of the most powerful figures in American government, but he never sought their favor or tried to be one of them. Washington Post 10/08/01

IRISH MUSEUM DIRECTOR TO NEW POST: "Declan Mcgonagle, who quit his post as director of the Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA) last April, is to take up a new position with the City Arts Centre in Dublin from December 1st. Though he has as yet no job title, he will head the centre as it begins a two-year process of redefinition and revitalisation." The Irish Times 10/08/01

Monday October 8

BRITISH MUSEUM WOES: "Britain's most famous museum has fallen victim to the ambiguous benefits of lottery capital grants, which allow expansion, but do not fund the running costs. Donors like to be associated with excellence, so perhaps it is not surprising that the British Museum managed to raise the money for the Great Court. But it is harder to raise money for running costs. Thus the museum found itself with a building it can no longer afford to run." The Independent (UK) 10/07/01

THE GREAT DIRECTOR SEARCH: The National Museum of Scotland has been looking for a new director for eight months. It's a prestigious post but not much progress has been made in the search. "Insiders say they are deeply concerned at the length of time the process is taking and are worried about the future direction of the museums without a permanent director at the helm." Scotland on Sunday 10/07/01

MUSEUM ATTENDANCE WORRIES: Museum attendance in the US is down after September 11, in some cases dramatically down. "Some museums are beginning to rebound, but many smaller ones in lower Manhattan near the World Trade Center site had to close their doors for several weeks and may need years to recover, administrators say. Museums also expect that donors will divert contributions from cultural institutions to relief efforts. And as they survey the damage the museums are struggling to come up with ways to recoup." The New York Times 10/08/01 (one-time registration required for access)

ART MARKET CHALLENGE: Recession, war - is this the double whammy on the art business? "There is no evidence to suggest that the art market is about to collapse. Most dealers say that business may not be booming but could be worse, and the old adage that it is one of the last sectors to be affected by recession (but also one of the last to recover) seems to be holding true. This is not, however, to suggest that all is well." The Telegraph (UK) 10/08/01

AUCTION HOUSE TO CUT JOBS: Sotheby's is said to be cutting as many as 200 jobs in a major restructuring. "It is thought there will be cuts in the internet venture, sotheby's.com; at Billingshurst, Sotheby's countryside middle-market saleroom in the UK , and among administrative staff. The auction house's Chicago office has been drastically trimmed and sales will no longer be held there." The Art Newspaper 10/08/01

MUSEUM FOR EVERYTHING: These days there's a museum for everything - trash, spam, hubcaps, toasters... "Wacky museums appeal because they 'present the world around us in ways that are unexpected. The 'stuff' on display is secondary." Newsweek 10/15/01

Sunday October 7

MUSEUM DISTRICT: Washington DC is building. "A museum boom is under way in our nation's capital. At least seven major institutions will be opening in the next few years, adding to the 91 loosely defined museums already in the district (that figure includes the Squished Penny Museum, for example, whose holdings are worth about $30)." Christian Science Monitor 10/05/01

BRITS ON DISPLAY: "In the next two months, the Victoria & Albert Museum and Tate Britain will open great new Lottery projects devoted entirely to showing off their huge British holdings to best advantage. With royal fanfares, spanking new sets of galleries will be unveiled to the public at both institutions. More paintings on more walls, more objects in more cases and flashes of good modern architecture combined with pastiche and restoration will make the "visitor experience" a good deal better and should make the story of British art more completely told than ever before." The Telegraph (UK) 10/06/01

ART IN THE POP JUNGLE: The new Guggenheim/Hermitage museums open in Las Vegas. "They offer a compelling view of contrasting styles. Both buildings challenge preconceived notions about the role of art in a landscape of pop culture. Both projects reignite old questions about the relationship between architecture and art. In addition, each architect represents wildly different sensibilities. While Frank Gehry's work is intuitive, Rem Koolhaas' is more cerebral. The fact that this creative friction has not produced architecture of lasting importance may be beyond the point in a city that is continuously picking up and disposing of the latest trends." Los Angeles Times 10/06/01

• MEET GUGGENVEGAS: "These are art museums designed for the tourist trade, pure and simple. They're another roadside attraction. I say this without derision and only with an eye toward honest identification of what has arisen on the Strip. In fact, I'm here to help. In a place where one talks of going to Siegfried & Roy or Mandalay Bay, no tourist destination will survive for long with a long marbles-in-the-mouth name like the Guggenheim Las Vegas and Guggenheim Hermitage Museum. The places need a sobriquet or handle. I nominate GuggenVegas." Los Angeles Times 10/06/01
• BETTING ON ART: Will Las Vegas gamblers pay $15 to see art in Las Vegas? The newly opened Guggenheim/Hermitage museums believe they will. ''You see all types here, from grungy to elegant. Think about it. You have people who've never seen a real work of art, people who will never go to Russia, people who may never get to New York.'' Boston Globe 10/06/01

OUT OF TEXAS: The architects chosen as finalists to design Dallas' new opera house are all stars from Europe. Why no Texans? "The tricky part is that Dallas' best designers typically work in small firms that focus on residential and modest commercial projects. An opera house represents an incredible esthetic and technical leap for most architects, let alone those who spend their time on townhouses and shopping centers. A major theater seems more manageable, though it too requires a level of experience and sophistication that is still in short supply around here." Dallas Morning News 10/06/01

WOMEN'S MUSEUM DIRECTOR SUDDENLY QUITS: After only three months on the job as director of the National Museum of Women in Washington DC, Ellen D. Reeder has suddenly resigned. "The first scholar of international stature to direct the museum, Reeder brought with her the promise of an intellectual heft some felt the museum had always lacked. The museum has had frequent turnover: six directors in the 14 years since it was founded." Washington Post 10/06/01

CONFRONTING THE BEAUTY OF ISLAM: "Several exhibitions of Islamic material are on view in New York this fall. And all of them arrive in the wake of violence that has given the very word Islam a volatile, negative edge." The New York Times 10/07/01 (one-time registration required for access)

Friday October 5

THE POLITICS OF BUYING ART: Berlin's National Gallery recently announced an agreement to purchase one of Europe's most important collections of concept art, land art, minimal art and arte povera. But the deal was announced before all the money was in place. And there are still some politics to finesse. But announcing the purchase in this way, the museum hopes "to set in motion an irresistible snowball effect. The whole acquisition process seems to have been engineered according to this principle of self-reinforcing attraction." Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 10/05/01

THE GOOG HITS VEGAS: The latest Guggenheim Museum opens - in Las Vegas. It stays open until 11 a night to accomodate the gamblers. "At first familiar names will dominate, but the aim is to present contemporary painting, sculpture, architectural design and multi-media art in the building. The design is spectacular, as it has to be to compete in a city which has cheerfully recreated the pyramids, Paris and, poignantly in the light of recent events, a New York skyline which for design reasons did not include the twin towers of the World Trade Centre." The Guardian (UK) 10/05/01

A CRACKLE BEHIND THE EARS: A team of researchers "at the University of Wales, Bangor, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston, has identified an area of the human brain that responds specifically when people view images of the human body." Evidently "a glimpse of a torso triggers a crackle of activity in a region of the brain behind the ears." The Telegraph (UK) 10/05/01

Thursday October 4

KEEPING UP WITH THE JONESES: The world has been on a museum-building binge, with billions of dollars spent on erecting new museums. What has sparked all the building? "The economic prosperity of the 1990s and the desire to be at the forefront of architectural innovation" are two of the biggest reasons. ARTNews 10/01

AN OLDER ART (BY FAR): Testing of prehistoric paintings made 30,000 years ago in French caves may force a rethinking of the history of the development of art. "Because the paintings are just as artistic and complex as the later Lascaux paintings [dating to 17,000 years ago], it may indicate that art developed much earlier than had been realised." BBC 10/04/01

Wednesday October 3

BRITISH MUSEUM CUTS: The British Museum says it is considering "cutting opening hours, closing galleries and reducing exhibitions to save £3m a year to balance its books." The museum blames cutbacks in government funding. The Independent (UK) 10/02/01

BM PENALIZED: "The museum has shelved a £80m study centre to show some of the 4 million objects in its vast collections that visitors never see. Despite a 50% rise in the museum's British visitors this year, the museum's annual grant had effectively been cut by £10m." The Guardian (UK) 10/03/01

• DYSFUNCTIONAL CREDIBILITY: Norman Rockwell's Americana has made him easy to dismiss as a "mere" illustrator. But a biography "has turned up the sorry details of the longtime Saturday Evening Post illustrator's personal battles with depression and the alleged suicides of his first two wives. In the upside-down world of art criticism, such exposure seems to be a prerequisite to regarding the painter as more than a two-dimensional workaholic patriot." Washington Monthly 10/01

HOLOCAUST MUSEUM BURNS: El Paso's Holocaust Museum burned Tuesday morning in an electrical fire. "No one was injured but the fire caused about $200,000 in damage to the building." USAToday 10/03/01

MADONNA TO PRESENT TURNER: Any doubts visual art (and artists) are London's new celebrities? How about Madonna presenting this year's Turner Prize. The pop star has been involved with the Tate in the past year, agreeing to loan a Frida Kahlo to the museum for a show. BBC 10/03/01

MUSEUM ATTENDANCE DOWN: Across the US, attendance at museums is substantially down in the weeks since September 11. "The American Association of Museums acknowledged that times will be tough because of the industry's direct link to travel and tourism." Los Angeles Times (AP) 10/02/01

• CHICAGO LAYOFFS: Chicago's Shedd Aquarium says it will lay off 44 full-time employees - 16 percent of its staff of 267 - because of "declining attendance, a months-long trend that worsened after the terrorist attacks on the East Coast." Chicago Tribune 10/02/01

Tuesday October 2

TATE DOWN: Since the Tate Modern opened last year, the original Tate building(reopened as Tate Britain) has suffered for visitors. Attendance in the first year was down by 500,000, a loss of a third of its visitors. "The glamorous new Tate Modern seemed to be getting all the attention, a pneumatic trophy wife banishing her dependable, all-too familiar predecessor to shrivelling neglect." The Observer (UK) 09/30/01

LIFE WITHOUT BIG BROTHER: At least 300 of Russia's museums are planning to form a non-governmental, non-commercial union to help each other, "especially regarding questions such as fund raising and merchandising, to which many are still new." The Russian Ministry of Culture no longer is able to support many of the activities which were funded during the Soviet era. St. Petersburg Times 10/02/01

RATING RODIN: Controversy over whether the 70 sculptures in a Toronto museum show are "authentic" Rodins or not has been swirling for months. "Invective has been flying across the Atlantic for weeks, but the issue isn't fakes versus originals. Given that 'original' Rodins are cast, what exactly is an authentic Rodin? Who gets to decide? Rodin himself, as much entrepreneur as sculptor, does not make the task any easier." The Guardian (UK) 10/02/01

BIG LEAGUE COSTS: The luxury-goods company LVMH appears to be paying heavily for its adventure in the top echelon of the arts market. LVMH bought the auction house Phillips in 1999 for about $112 million, and spent tens of millions more to polish its image. "These sums pale, however, beside Phillips’s strategy to attract high-value consignments and move the company up towards the big two auction houses." The Art Newspaper 10/02/01

ITALIAN TOWN HELPS REBUILD NEW YORK CHURCH: One of the smallest architectural victims of September 11 was St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church, which stood across the street from ground zero. Parishioners are raising money to rebuild, and already have a half-million dollar head start - a surprise donation from the town of Bari, Italy. St. Nicholas was the patron saint of Bari. NPR [audio file] 01/10/01

MAYBE OTHER STOLEN PAINTINGS: Miami's Vizcaya Museum is returning a painting found to have been stolen by Nazis from a Polish museum. That may not be all. "We have so little history on some of these things that I just have to think there will be more claims," says the museum director. Images of other paintings from the same donor will be posted on the Internet. Los Angeles Times 10/01/01

• Previously: STOLEN PAINTING TO BE RETURNED: A 500-year-old painting stolen out of Poland's National Museum by the Nazis is to be returned by a Miami museum. "The painting is one of 35 works donated to Miami-Dade County in 1980 by Claire Mendel, the German consul in Miami from 1958 to 1970. He died in Miami in 1987." Nando Times (AP) 09/30/01

Monday October 1

FLORENCE STRIVES TO DO BETTER: The Florence Biennale isn't a major player in the world of biennales. "Despite being within strolling distance of some of the world's greatest art museums, in the city that was at the heart of the Renaissance, the last Florence Biennale (in 1999) attracted just 15,000 visitors." This year the biennial is striving for bigger things. "If the Biennale wants to regain the prestige that it once enjoyed, it will have to improve the quality and broaden the range of its pictures." The Telegraph (UK) 10/01/01

BRITAIN'S CULTURAL REVOLUTION: "The most significant event in the history of art in Britain was the Reformation, and the waves of staggeringly violent native iconoclasm set off by it. The destruction wrought on the artistic heritage of this country when it turned on its own Catholicism was nuclear in scale and ferocity. Every cathedral, church, chapel, cemetery, wayside shrine and village cross in England and Wales was affected. A thousand years of artistic evolution, the sum total of Britain's cultural history so far, was attacked by rioting mobs of religious maniacs, while the rest of the country cheered them on." Sunday Times 09/30/01

ART BENEFIT: New York artists plan a big benefit for victims of September 11. "So far, plans call for a joint live auction held by Sotheby's, Phillips de Pury & Luxembourg, Doyle New York, Guernsey's, Swann and Leland that will take place in the afternoon at the premises of one of the auction houses in New York. In the evening, there will be a New York Thanks You concert at Carnegie Hall for the mayor and all the rescue workers involved in the post-attack effort." Forbes.com 09/26/01

STOLEN PAINTING TO BE RETURNED: A 500-year-old painting stolen out of Poland's National Museum by the Nazis is to be returned by a Miami museum. "The painting is one of 35 works donated to Miami-Dade County in 1980 by Claire Mendel, the German consul in Miami from 1958 to 1970. He died in Miami in 1987." Nando Times (AP) 09/30/01

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