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Top of the Barnes (behind Philadelphia's Free Library): Green roof on the right. Gallery mock-ups on the left, where monitors measure the sunlight and help regulate the lighting in the galleries below. In the middle, a cantilevered light box (now renamed a "canopy") that admits filtered and diffused illumination into the sprawling event space below. Entrance to the facility is … [Read more...] about MeTube: Scenes (and thoughts) from the Barnes Foundation’s Preview

Silver rhyton (drinking vessel) of a stag, c. 14th-13th century B.C., Central Anatolia, Hittite, Gift of Norbert Schimmel Trust, 1989I've always wondered whether the repatriationists would eventually get around to scrutinizing the objects donated to the Metropolitan Museum by the late Norbert Schimmel, a collector widely respected for his connoisseurship and public … [Read more...] about Turkey’s Repatriation Claims: Met’s Schimmel Benefactions Targeted (plus AAMD database)

Congressman Jerrold Nadler I'm all for artists' resale royalties---a cause I've been espousing since the '70s. But it's not a good plan to redress one perceived inequity by creating another. That's what the newly introduced Equity for Visual Artists Act of 2011 appears to do, by singling out large auction houses as the only sellers required under the proposed law to … [Read more...] about New U.S. Artists’ Equity Bill is an Auction-House Inequity Bill

Okay, all you museum wonks. It's that moment you've all been waiting for---the online debut of the Metropolitan Museum's annual report for fiscal 2009!The Report of the Chief Financial Officer, as predicted, showed a whopping $8.4-million operating deficit for the fiscal year ending June 30. Even scarier, the Report from the President and Director mentioned the "likelihood of … [Read more...] about Metropolitan Museum’s Red-Ink 2009 Annual Report, Now Online

It's too soon to "review" the New Acropolis Museum in Athens, because it's still a work-in-progress: Construction continues and few objects have been installed, except on the ground floor, where relatively minor but instructive archaeological finds unearthed during excavation for the museum are ingeniously and attractively arrayed in an educational gallery targeted to … [Read more...] about New Acropolis Museum Photo Essay: A Sneak Preview

Asher B. Durand, "Kindred Spirits," Crystal Bridges Museum, sold by NY Public LibraryWe all remember when the NY Public Library justified its 2005 sales of important paintings, including Asher B. Durand's iconic "Kindred Spirits" (above), on the grounds that exhibiting art was not part of its core mission as a library.Now it has discovered a pursuit more closely tied to its … [Read more...] about Kindred Gamers: NY Public Library as Video Parlor

As expected, Judge Stanley Ott of Montgomery County Orphans' Court did not rule from the bench today on whether the Friends of the Barnes and/or Montgomery County would be granted standing to seek a reconsideration of the judge's decision that gave permission for the Barnes Foundation to move to Philadelphia.This just in from Carolyn Carluccio, the attorney for the county who … [Read more...] about News Flash: No Decision Today on Reopening Barnes Case

Catalogue for the © MURAKAMI exhibition When I contacted the always helpful Sally Williams of the Brooklyn Museum's press office about a month ago, she informed me that no decision had yet been made as to whether Brooklyn's version of the Murakami show (organized by the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art, opening Apr. 5 in Brooklyn) would include a boutique for products … [Read more...] about Boutique Freak: Marketing Murakami Vuittons in Brooklyn

Mock-up of copies (left) of the Parthenon Marbles in the New Acropolis MuseumThe planners of the New Acropolis Museum had a brilliant idea for display of the Parthenon Marbles. Then they improved upon it. Now they've ruined it.What still remains of the original plan is the installation of the sculptural slabs around the outside of a rectangular structure of the same dimensions … [Read more...] about New Acropolis Museum: Marring the Marbles

An early model of Frank Gehry's planned Guggenheim Abu Dhabi A kinder, gentler assessment of Tom Krens' reign at the Guggenheim is provided today by James Russell of Bloomberg. Russell has approving words for the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi (and the rest of the proposed development in the Saadiyat Island Cultural District) and also praises what Krens did in New York: Before Krens, the … [Read more...] about More on Tom Krens from James Russell (and me) UPDATED

Broad-ly Speaking at LACMA More Eli Broad criticism occurs in Martin Filler's brilliantly titled piece for the latest New York Review of Books (Mar. 20), Broad-Minded Museum. (Why didn't my editors think of that?) A key passage: The Los Angeles County Museum of Art receives substantial public funds and many of its staff members are civil service employees of Los Angeles County. … [Read more...] about More on Eli Broad from Martin Filler (and me)

Look familiar? Here are two works from Anthony d'Offay's collection, which have twins in Eli Broad's collection: Damien Hirst, "Away from the Flock," 1995 © Damien Hirst Robert Therrien, "No Title (Table and Four Chairs)," 2003 © Robert Therrien / ARS, NY and DACS, London 2008 Their collections may have similarities, but you can't have much more of a contrast between art … [Read more...] about D’Offay Offs Broad: Parading a Different “Paradigm”