Archives for December 2007

Well, it's not so new any more, but my Wall Street Journal article on the Philadelphia Museum's new Perelman Building finally hits the stands today (on the "Leisure & Arts" page of the "Personal Journal" section), so I can now show you and comment about what I saw. No other U.S. museum boasts an entrance quite as embellished as this (from the original 1927 Art Deco … [Read more...] about Philadelphia Museum’s New Perelman Building: An Irreverent Photo Essay (Part I)

David Redden takes the bid. The one-lot auction at Sotheby's this evening has just concluded. Ross Perot's copy of the Magna Carta fetched a hammer price of $19 million, below the presale estimate of $20-30 million ($21.32 million with buyer's premium). No word yet on the buyer, but If any American institution was bidding, this below-estimate result should have helped to make … [Read more...] about Magna Carta Knocked Down at $19 Million UPDATED

Sometimes you've just got to take cultural solace wherever you can find it. There's not much of that on the physical therapy floor of the nursing home where my mother is now in temporary residence, to flex her new hip. But on our first day here, I was reminded of my previous hipster post, where I mentioned that I was looking forward to my mother's ascent "from hospital hell to … [Read more...] about My Cultural Moment in the Rehab Joint

The Metropolitan Museum's financial operating results improved by more than $5 million in fiscal 2007 from the results of previous fiscal year, thanks largely to lower pension expenses, higher gains on invested pension assets, and (let us not forget) increased revenue from the controversial hike in the recommended admissions fee from $15 to $20. According to the museum's … [Read more...] about Metropolitan Museum’s Annual Report: Big Operating Surplus, Big Debt Increase, Big Lieberman Bequest

This came in late yesterday from the Friends of the Barnes, the ad hoc group opposing the planned move of the Barnes Foundation from Merion to Philadelphia: Today we sent our attorney, [Mark] Schwartz, an e-mail in which he was instructed to "discontinue any and all work in behalf of the Friends of the Barnes Foundation and other petitioners." We also informed him that "we are … [Read more...] about News Flash: Friends of the Barnes’ Legal Case in Disarray UPDATED

In a letter responding to a query from Geoff Edgers of the Boston Globe, reporter Hugh Eakin describes the genesis of his New Yorker story on the Getty Museum's former antiquities curator, Marion True, showing some sympathy for her plight. Edgers posts Eakin's comments today on the Boston Globe's Exhibitionist blog. Here's how Eakin regards True: Here is a woman with strong … [Read more...] about Edgers on How Eakin Got the True Story

While I was helping my mother (above, ably supported by fabulous physical therapist Arlo) work out the kinks in her new artificial hip, much was going on in the real world: ---In the Dec. 17 issue of the New Yorker, a writer I have greatly admired, Hugh Eakin, conspicuously omitted some key details from his "Treasure Hunt"---the Getty gospel according to Marion True, the … [Read more...] about Links to Get Out the Kinks: Marion True, LACMA’s Fractional Gift, Ouroussoff’s Calatrava Flipflop

George T.M. Shackelford, chair of European art and modern art at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, responds to Chicago's Faux "Faun" Inspires Faux Journalism: There seems to be no question that the Chicago "Faun" formerly attributed to Paul Gauguin is a forgery; but please understand that it is a brilliant forgery. It convinced not only the Chicago curators (who are so very far … [Read more...] about BlogBack: George Shackelford on the Faux Faun

Sotheby's November 1994 catalogue entry for the purported Gauguin (on right) Does one good fake deserve another? I thought this article by Arifa Akbar of the London Independent was the best I'd seen about the Art Institute of Chicago's Greenhalgh "Gauguin," until I saw this piece by the highly respected art writer Martin Bailey for the Art Newspaper, which contains much of the … [Read more...] about Chicago’s Faux “Faun” Inspires Faux Journalism

John Elderfield Photo: Timothy Greenfield-Sanders Apparently, the Museum of Modern Art is going to stick to its put-'em-out-to-pasture policy, allowing one of its most consistently brilliant curators to retire at age 65 (as previously discussed here). Richard Lacayo reported yesterday in his Looking Around blog: The Museum of Modern Art just informed its staff that John … [Read more...] about Elderfield Too Elderly? MoMA’s Mandatory Retirement Beckons

The Barnes Foundation has cleared another hurdle to its planned move from Merion, PA, to the current site of a youth detention center on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway in Philadelphia. The resistance of Councilwoman Jannie Blackwell to the construction of a replacement detention facility in her West Philadelphia district has magically disappeared, thanks to an agreement to build … [Read more...] about Political Deal-Making Expedites Barnes Move to Philly

Is it just me? It seems that ever since my mother took her hip-fracturing spill, I've been coming into contact with all sorts of culture-related tumbles. In yesterday's NY Times, Sarah Lyall, demonstrating a sharp nose for news, described being on location at the treacherous gap in the floor of the Tate Modern at the very moment when the hapless Anne McNicholas, "a 51-year-old … [Read more...] about Department of Bad Falls, Cultural Division

The immediate impetus for the plan to sell paintings from Randolph College's Maier Museum has ceased to exist: The Lynchburg, VA, institution yesterday announced: The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) will announce today its decision to remove Randolph College from warning....However, SACS will monitor the College in the upcoming year, and we will be required … [Read more...] about Randolph College Accreditation Warning Removed: Can Maier Paintings Remain?

Ownership claims have made strange adversaries in Italy; unusual allies in New York. In Italy, the village of Monteleone just won't give up on its claim for the Etruscan chariot that the Metropolitan Museum has owned for over 100 years. Miffed that the Italian Culture Ministry hasn't taken up its cause, the village, by unanimous vote of its council, has decided to sue not only … [Read more...] about Department of Strange Lawsuits: Monteleone Chariot; MoMA and Guggenheim Picassos

David Wilkins, professor emeritus of the history of art and architecture at the University of Pittsburgh, joining the Boldini defenders, responds to The Met's New European Galleries: The Good, the Bad and the Dumbed Down: I'd like to say that I think the Boldini is a good choice to exhibit---an important and respected artist at the time (yes, we need to know what they thought … [Read more...] about BlogBack: Art Historian Boldly Defends Boldini