And Elizabeth Ann Macgregor, its director of 22 years, is leaving. "When Macgregor took over in 1999, the MCA was just eight years old and already on the verge of bankruptcy. Fewer than 100,000 people each year were visiting the converted Maritime Services Board art deco pile, which commands an imposing presence overlooking Circular Quay. Today more than 1...
How to explain this "NFT" thing we're all hearing about in the news? OK, so ... if you buy a unique ID number associated with a certain piece of art, then no one else - in theory - can buy that exact art again. "If I sell Picasso.jpeg to James, I can’t then turn around and sell the same...
"After much discussion, we developed structures to jointly fundraise and equitably disperse proceeds between us relative to budget size. More importantly, we learned about each other and the audiences we individually serve. We committed to the concept that we could advance arts leadership in this city by sharing knowledge, expertise, and contacts, and that we all want our varied...
The museum has 3D scans of its holdings but is extremely reluctant to release them to the public, since the institution supports itself by selling its own reproductions of Rodin's works. Those works, however, are legally the property of the French state, and thus should be subject to freedom of information laws. So an American fabricator and activist, Cosmo...
"Chancellor Angela Merkel and German state leaders have agreed to start easing restrictions. If coronavirus cases are below 100 per 100,000 people over seven days - as in Berlin with a rate of 67.8 - people should be able to visit museums from Monday after booking a slot." - Reuters
What does it mean for museums to be responsive to their communities? Is it museums’ mission to provide an educational experience or meet changing demands for entertainment? How can museums be all things to all people? In the span of six decades, broadly speaking, museums have shifted from indifference to visitors to dreaming up ways to lure a broader...
Online Viewing Rooms have certain advantages: collectors like the price transparency many fairs have demanded, and gallerists enjoy saving money on costly flights, hotels, and dinners. On the downside, the novelty of the online fair wears off quickly given the relative lack of excitement that accompanies staring at a screen. - Artnet
"A military antiques expert alerted police after being called in to give advice regarding an inheritance in Bordeaux in January and becoming suspicious about the luxurious helmet and body armour in the family's collection. … The are thought to have been made in Milan between 1560 and 1580. They were donated to the Louvre in 1922 by the...
It was six years ago last week that extremist forces rampaged through the place, smashing ancient Assyrian sculptures with sledgehammers, burning books, looting anything sellable, and wrecking the building. Here's a look at how a consortium assembled by the Smithsonian, the Louvre, the World Monuments Fund, and the Iraqi State Board of Antiquities and Heritage is assessing the extent...
Pantone started out, under another name, as a printing company, and one of its employees, Larry Herbert, got tired of trying to figure out exactly what hue his clients meant when they said things like "I want kind of a wine red" or "Sort of like a sky blue, but darker." He was the one who realized that the...
In a reorganization plan filed in federal bankruptcy court in Delaware this week, the Boy Scouts listed nearly 60 pieces of art by Rockwell whose sale would help raise money for a settlement fund of at least $300 million for sexual abuse victims. - The New York Times
"Still imposing after 2,000 years, a vast funerary monument that was once the resting place of Rome's emperors is to reopen to visitors on Tuesday after a €12 million restoration. … It is a place that, despite being right in the heart of the capital and just a stone's throw from busy shopping streets, restaurants and hotels, has...
Little Island completes the transformation of the Meatpacking District, where for decades freight cars delivered animals to slaughterhouses that lined and bloodied the nearby blocks. Now it’s a high-end neighborhood of sleek apartment towers, unaffordable art galleries and fashion retail. The long-abandoned freight viaduct has become the iconic High Line park, while the Whitney Museum of American Art sits...
"Called Meidum Geese, the painting was discovered in the 1800s in the Chapel of Itet at Meidum. Itet was the wife of the vizier Nefermaat, who ruled Egypt from 2610 to 2590 B.C. The powerful couple was able to commission works from the most sought-after artists of the day." - Artnet
