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Does anyone still believe that Damien Hirst's diamond skull really sold for $100 million? I don't. Not after my e-mail exchange with Sara Macdonald, press officer of White Cube, Hirst's London gallery: CultureGrrl: What does it mean that Damien Hirst "is keeping a stake" in the skull? Has he literally kicked in some of the $100 million from his own funds? If so, can you give … [Read more...] about Is Hirst’s Skull a $100-Million Hoax?

It must be the late-summer silly season: I admire contrarians, being one myself, but Boston Globe critic Ken Johnson really goes out on a limb by appearing to endorse the controversial Matter Pollocks: "If the two dozen small paintings discovered by Alex Matter five years ago in his deceased parents' storage locker are not by Jackson Pollock, then I'd like to congratulate … [Read more...] about Plink These Links: “Pollock Matters” Review, Greenaway’s “Nightwatching” Movie, Peter Max’s “Summer of Love”

The 11-year-old online magazine Slate, to which I once contributed its very first art commentary, has linked to today's memorial post on a topic that's off my beaten track---opera. How come they never cite me on the art beat? Should CultureGrrl start going head-to-head with Opera Chic? No, she'd outperform me by an octave! … [Read more...] about My Link Debut on “Slate”

Does Stephanie Strom realize the enormity of what's she's doing? On the front page of today's NY Times, she takes deadly aim at tax-deductible charitable giving in general and tax breaks for cultural giving in particular. She quotes some philanthropists, including major arts benefactor Eli Broad, giving the other side of the argument, but the overall anti-philanthropy thrust of … [Read more...] about NY Times Article Undercuts All Charitable Giving

Can it be that there's no one around today at ArtsJournal to blog a personal appreciation of Luciano Pavarotti, the People's Tenor? It looks like this necessary task, on the occasion of his death, has fallen to this visual arts blogger, who moonlights as an operaphile. I saw Pavarotti at both ends of his career: I resonated with his nine perfect high C's in 1972 when he … [Read more...] about My Pavarotti Memories: The People’s Tenor

Scenes from the "ArtJail" In a case of perfect comic timing, an anonymous press release for a "combined art museum/prison" in Philadelphia hit my inbox and my funny bone yesterday, just as the Barnes Foundation was celebrating the signing of legislation authorizing the City of Philadelphia to enter into a long-term lease with the Barnes for a site now occupied by a juvenile … [Read more...] about And While We’re Considering Various Barnes Proposals…

Mariët Westermann Good news for those of you (like me) who enjoy getting your scholarly news from the Art History Newsletter: It's back from summer hiatus. And today it leads with the news (already reported here by the NY Times) that the director of NYU's Institute of Fine Arts, Mariët Westermann, is following the money (and the museum development projects) to Abu Dhabi, where … [Read more...] about Art History Newsletter Is Back; Mariët Westermann Is Almost Gone (to Abu Dhabi)

19th-Century Figureheads at Salem's Peabody Essex Museum Let this be your launching point of your journey into world art. So declares the wall label in the Peabody Essex Museum's spacious East India Marine Hall (above), whose cases contain testaments to the quirky, scattershot acquisitiveness of the members of the marine society that gave the hall its name. Those seafarers' … [Read more...] about The Atrium That Ate the Peabody Essex

If at first you are explicitly denied authorization to publish images of an artist's copyrighted work...reproduce them anyway? Such appears to be the shaky stance of Boston College in its catalogue for the just opened Pollock Matters show, which includes images of genuine Pollocks in along with the much-doubted works recently discovered by Alex Matter. Boston Globe reporter … [Read more...] about Drink These Links: Unauthorized Use of Pollock Images; Unorthodox Proposal for the Barnes; Opposition to Auction-House Practices

Free "Plazacast" of NY Philharmonic Opening Night After reading Terry Teachout's article in this month's Commentary, Selling Classical Music, I feel moved to leap to the defense of my NY Philharmonic. I'm a longtime subscriber and at one of last season's intermissions, I observed to my husband that the traditionally arthritic audience seemed to be getting noticeably younger. … [Read more...] about The Rejuvenated, Web-Wise NY Philharmonic

In my Op-Ed piece in today's LA Times, Museums Can't Compete, I argue that museum collecting is dying and that the time-honored assumption of museum officials that some day, some way, most of the great masterpieces in private hands will end up in their institutions is no longer a given. Tyler Green argues today in his Modern Art Notes that I don't provide enough examples to … [Read more...] about Museums As Mausoleums: My LA Times Op-Ed Piece

Memo to all you trusting CultureGrrl readers who took me at my word when I vowed to slack off for a month to perfect my tennis game: What were you thinking? (Or, more appropriately: What was I thinking???) Those of you who wisely DID take off the month of August now have 45 posts to catch up on. I'll make it easier for you by giving you (in chronological order) my Top 10 … [Read more...] about The Grrl Is Back (as if she ever left)

Step away from the beach and take a look at the front page of the "Money & Investing" section of today's Wall Street Journal, where Lauren A.E. Schuker provides a detailed report on current fears about possible defaults in "the big-money world of art-backed loans," linked to the broader credit crisis. Schuker writes: As these newer kinds of [art-backed] loans proliferate, … [Read more...] about Are Art-Backed Loans Part of the Current Credit Crisis?

Tennessee Attorney General Robert Cooper Jr. has just filed a brief in Davidson County Chancery Court asserting his strong opposition to the settlement agreement between Fisk University in Nashville and the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe. The court will hold a hearing on the agreement this Thursday. Excerpts from the AG's brief: This lawsuit has come full circle. It began … [Read more...] about Super Cooper Has Spoken: No! No! Fisk’s O’Keeffe Can’t Go

The Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, MA, announces its planned expansion into 29,000 square feet of former factory space owned by MASS MoCA in nearby North Adams. The two art institutions will embark on new collaborative programs. Some museum directors would feel sufficiently challenged by plans for two new buildings by Tadao Ando and a renovation of its existing building, … [Read more...] about Flit Through These Links—Clark/MASS MoCA Deal; Diamond Damien Deal; Pelli Concert Hall Clinker