Archives for November 2006

Maxwell Anderson, director of the Indianapolis Museum, responds to CultureGrrl's previous post, identifying him as "a key advisor to Barbara and Lawrence Fleischman, whose extensive collection of ancient art was later given to the Getty": While serving as a curator in the Metropolitan Museum's Greek and Roman Department until 1987, I actively encouraged the Fleischmans to … [Read more...] about BlogBack: Max Anderson on the Getty and Its Fleischman Collection

Maxwell L. Anderson, director of the Indianapolis Museum of Art, leaped to the defense of Michael Brand and the J. Paul Getty Museum in a news report broadcast Wednesday on NPR. Unmentioned in the radio report is that Anderson, a Greek and Roman specialist, played an important role in the development of the Getty's antiquities collection: He was a key advisor to Barbara and … [Read more...] about Max Anderson Defends Michael Brand

UPDATES: Those of you linking to this post from ArtsJournal, please see my updates here and here. A little Thanksgiving news bite with your turkey: Italian Culture Minister Francesco Rutelli today held a press conference in Rome, where he "pinn[ed] the blame on the John [sic] Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles for a halt in the return of pillaged art treasures," according to the … [Read more...] about Getty and Rutelli Trade Punches

I'm a bit late opining on the Gold show at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, but I did already tell you it was "extraordinary" and give you a tantalizing preview. The virtue of my procrastination is that when Roberta Smith of the NY Times weighs in before me, I have the luxury of linking to her and saying, "ditto." However, she did not have the luxury, in a … [Read more...] about Gold Rush at American Museum of Natural History

MoMA's new Archive Reading Room, with a view of St. Thomas Church © 2006 Timothy Hursley From the fleeting impressions I got during yesterday's brief press tour of the public spaces in the Museum of Modern Art's new Lewis B. and Dorothy Cullman Education and Research Building, it appears that architect Yoshio Taniguchi's design concepts for MoMA work better here, on a more … [Read more...] about MoMA’s New Education Wing: A Kinder, Gentler Taniguchi

The link to the Getty's full press release on the antiquities stalemate with Italy is now posted here. … [Read more...] about Getty Update

The following are excerpts from a press release just in from the J. Paul Getty Museum (and not yet up on its website): The Getty has decided to return to Italy...26 objects---including a number of highly significant works of art---despite the [Italian Culture] Ministry's apparent repudiation of an agreement signed jointly by representatives of the Ministry and the Getty in … [Read more...] about Getty Antiquities Mess: Brand Takes a Stand; True Faces New Charges

MoMA's New Lewis B. and Dorothy Cullman Education and Research Building Did you maybe think that the new mega-MoMA (with its new eight-story, 63,000-square-foot Education and Research Building poised to open next Tuesday) was big enough to accommodate its needs for the rest of this century? Clearly you lack the vision and expansionist appetites of Glenn Lowry, director of the … [Read more...] about Are You Ready for the New Mega-Mega MoMA?

Here's an enterprising use of the Internet: The fundraising campaign, led by the Philadelphia Museum, to keep Eakins' "The Gross Clinic" in Philadelphia now has a website for online donations. Thomas Jefferson University has given local institutions and the general Philly community until Dec. 26 to match the $68 million jointly offered for the painting by Wal-Mart heiress Alice … [Read more...] about New Wrinkles in Philly’s Save-the-Eakins Campaign

Before yesterday's happy news about the FBI's recovery of the Toledo Museum's Goya, a CultureGrrl reader employed at an art museum (not Toledo or the Guggenheim) shared his reactions to the shipping slip-ups that reportedly contributed to the theft. His own museum, he said, had a previous incident in which art transporters had wanted "to stop at a motel under non-emergency … [Read more...] about Anonymous BlogBack on the Goya Theft

Thanks to tips received as a result of "comprehensive media coverage of the theft," Goya's "Children With a Cart," stolen en route from the Toledo Museum to the Guggenheim Museum, has been recovered in Newark and "appears to be unharmed," the FBI announced today. Previous news reports that suggested the theft had probably been an "inside job" were incorrect, federal agents … [Read more...] about They Found It! Goya Recovered by FBI

Go here to find links to letters recently sent to the Senate Finance Committee by the Association of Art Museum Directors, Art Institute of Chicago, Guggenheim Foundation, Los Angeles County Museum, Whitney Museum and Metropolitan Museum, requesting changes in the newly restrictive tax law provisions affecting fractional gifts of artworks to museums. You can read them along … [Read more...] about Letters from the Fractional-Gifts Lobby

The … [Read more...] about Who Transported the Goya?

My answer to this burning question: I don't know and I don't much care. What's more interesting to me is that NY Times art-market reporter Carol Vogel felt compelled to defend her reputation for accuracy by repeatedly asserting that Mexican financier David Martinez, whom she called "obsessively private," is now the proud owner of ''No. 5, 1948.'' Vogel says that painting was … [Read more...] about Who Bought the Pollock?

… [Read more...] about COMING TOMORROW: Who Owns the Pollock? (Or Not)