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Martin Gayford's comments yesterday in Bloomberg notwithstanding, the Art Institute of Chicago's acquisition of the faux "Faun", purported to be by Gauguin, was not the biggest museum acquisition gaffe "since the days of the ingenious Dutchman Han van Meegeren," who manufactured "Vermeers" in the 1940s. At least as high-profile and as embarrassing was the Cleveland Museum's … [Read more...] about Faux “Faun”: Is It Museums’ Grandest Goof Since Van Meegeren?

In his Art Law Blog, Donn Zaretsky addresses my question of why Janice and Henri Lazarof were willing to bestow upon the Los Angeles County Museum of Art a major fractional and partial gift of modern artworks in the current unfavorable tax climate for this type of donation, which museum officials claim has essentially frozen this form of largesse. Zaretsky writes: The answer, … [Read more...] about LACMA’s Fractional Gifts: Why the Lazarofs Might Have Chanced It UPDATED

Part I is here. This continues my not-suitable-for-the-Wall Street Journal responses to the Philadelphia Museum's new Perelman Building. (For the sober mainstream media treatment, go to my WSJ article here.) Below is an awkward junction of the old Fidelity Mutual Life Insurance building (right), the new Richard Gluckman addition (left) and his outdoor café (bottom, with red … [Read more...] about Philadelphia Museum’s New Perelman Building: An Irreverent Photo Essay (Part II)

There have been lots of conflicting accounts about whether or not Russia has definitely canceled the big museum loan show scheduled to run from Jan. 26 to Apr. 18 at London's Royal Academy. Here's what Johanna Bennett of the Academy's press office stated yesterday: The Royal Academy of Arts has not received any official notification regarding the status of the exhibition From … [Read more...] about Royal Academy May Have Lost Russian Museums Show Over Immunity-from-Seizure Uncertainties UPDATED

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