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Reading the comments by Metropolitan Museum director Philippe de Montebello in a Q&A from Richard Lacayo's Looking Around blog gave me a traumatic flashback to the unexpected curve I was thrown at the very beginning of my talk two weeks ago at Richard Leventhal's class at the University of Pennsylvania. In answering Lacayo's question about whether the Met should "have gone … [Read more...] about The “Times Change” Defense for Past Antiquities Transgressions

Although we've yet to learn what position Tennessee Attorney General Robert Cooper Jr. will take when the deal between Fisk University and Alice Walton's Crystal Bridges Museum comes up for court approval (or disapproval) on Feb. 19, the Governor himself, Phil Bredesen, has now weighed in. Erik Schelzig of the Associated Press reports [via]: Bredesen...said estimates from art … [Read more...] about Tennessee Governor Opposes Fisk-Walton Proposal

Coinciding with the Getty Museum's publication of the above book comes another "Great Moment in Greek Archaeology"---the dismissal in Greek court of the Getty-related charges against the museum's former antiquities curator, Marion True. Now that the Getty has returned the objects that Greece has sought, the judges have discovered that the statute of limitations has run. Did … [Read more...] about Greece Backs Off Getty-Related Case Against Marion True

Cylindrical Brushpot, Qianlong period (1736-1795) $7 million at Christie's (presale estimate: $1.3-1.9 million) Notwithstanding Malcolm Rogers' comments to the Boston Globe, it should be no great surprise that Alan and Simone Hartman turned around and put on the market the Chinese jades (top lot, above) that they displayed three years ago at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, … [Read more...] about Hartman Jades: From Boston Museum to $41-Million Hong Kong Auctions

The Broadway theater strike must be settled before this Sunday. That's when I have tickets to see Tom Stoppard's "Rock 'n' Roll." Meanwhile, have New York's theater critics, with only the reopened "Grinch" to review on Broadway these days, managed to discover Off Broadway's "Celia: The Life and Music of Celia Cruz," about which I wrote favorably two months ago? The NY Post has … [Read more...] about Theatrical Musings: Broadway Strike Must End! “Celia Cruz” Must Be Reviewed!

Nicholas Penny From London's National Gallery, to Washington's National Gallery, to London's National Gallery: Nicholas Penny, one of those whom I identified in October as the two leading candidates to become next director of the National Gallery in London, has apparently won the prized assignment. Louise Jury of the London Evening Standard reports: National Gallery … [Read more...] about News Flash: Nicholas Penny to Direct National Gallery, London

Is the artworld getting increasingly litigious? While I've been focused on the saleroom, there's been so much going on in the courtroom that I need to do an international round-up of artworld legal developments: ---First and foremost, let's remember good causes during this holiday season and consider the desperate fundraising campaign of the embattled opponents to the Maier … [Read more...] about Art in Court: Maier Museum, Marion True, Getty Bronze, Andrew Lloyd Webber, “Portrait of Wally,” Robert De Niro

I'm a lover (and closet singer) of old standards---the songs that were popular back in my parents' day. So when Matthew Price, a BCC-TV journalist who had just arrived here from Jerusalem, began the auction report, in which he gave me my two minutes of fame, with the words, "Autumn in New York," my thoughts of course strayed to that Vernon Duke classic. Being CultureGrrl, I … [Read more...] about Singing Podcast: “Auctions in New York”

I'm sure that many of you interrupted your Thanksgiving revels yesterday to see that the NY Times actually did run a correction to Carol Vogel's article that had misidentified purchasers of works at Sotheby's contemporary sale. But I just got back into the CultureGrrl newsroom this afternoon, and discovered that this correction (scroll down) had slipped into the paper while I … [Read more...] about Department of Impossible NY Times Auction Corrections

Having reported yesterday on the big-money auction buyers identified in articles in the NY Times and London Telegraph, I've now been getting e-mails suggesting that some of those deep-pocketed collectors did not actually purchase the objects connected to them in those reports. Carol Vogel had announced that Laurence Graff "is thought to have bought Jeff Koons's 'Diamond … [Read more...] about Department of (Possible) Corrections: The Big-Money Auction Buyers UPDATED

The Guggenheim...Unpainted Traditionalists rejoice: The restored exterior of the Guggenheim Museum will not be buffed with Powell Buff after all. So decreed the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission today in a 7-2 vote. Sewell Chan reported this afternoon on the NY Times' City Room blog that the commission's public meeting today included a presentation by Tom Krens, … [Read more...] about Guggenheim News Flash: Landmarks Preservation Commission Preserves Familiar Exterior Color

Whether you side with some archaeologists and scholars who believe that the U.S. State Department's Cultural Property Advisory Committee is admirably safeguarding the cultural heritage of foreign countries, or you agree with some dealers, collectors and museums who feel that CPAC inappropriately rubber stamps source countries' excessively retentionist requests, you ought to buy … [Read more...] about Numismatists Sue Secretive Cultural Property Advisory Committee for More Transparency

A little knowledge is a dangerous thing. Last Wednesday, I noted that dealers had been the top bidders on a number of key lots in Christie's contemporary evening sale, which caused me to observe: [This] raises the question of how much of the results of this sale, which everyone had been eyeing warily as a barometer of the art market, were bolstered by dealers who have a big … [Read more...] about Post-Auction Reports Identify Clients for Whom Dealers Bought Top Lots

Bruno LeMieux-Ruibal, a New York correspondent for the Spanish-language Lápiz International Art Magazine, comments on Alice Walton, MoMA's planned skyscraper and Hirst's shark at the Met. On the shark, I want to clear up one misunderstanding (which other readers shared, because I wrote unclearly in my original post): I don't object to the photography ban. What irked me was the … [Read more...] about BlogBack: Alternate Take on Alice Walton’s Collecting, MoMA’s Skyscraper, Hirst’s Shark

(Part I is here.) The most important next step in achieving a ceasefire in the cultural-property wars is to move beyond the current case-by-case chaos to a more reasoned, consistent handling of these issues. The most obvious need is for some sort of consensus about a cutoff date for future acquisitions: Should museums not acquire any objects that don't have a known provenance … [Read more...] about My Ceasefire Proposals for the Cultural-Property Wars–Part II