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With all the talk about outsized salaries for alpha male museum directors, let's highlight a different issue: unequal pay for women. I'm talking specifically about the woman who since 1982 has ably directed the Philadelphia Museum, Anne d'Harnoncourt (above). The on P. 13 of the current issue of The Art Newspaper, you can find the results of their 2006 international survey of … [Read more...] about Let’s Have Salary Parity for Anne d’Harnoncourt!

It's a little like being caught wearing the same dress as someone else at the party: Carol Vogel and I led our stories about Sotheby's Imp/Mod auction with the identical Tobias Meyer quote, "It's a new world." Although Carol didn't say so, he meant "a new world record," not that a breakout price for Feininger was a world-shattering (or even an auctionworld-shattering) … [Read more...] about Coverage of the Sotheby’s Sale: Great Minds Quote Alike

"It's a new world," said Tobias Meyer from the auction podium. ...Record, that is---for Lyonel Feininger, whose "Jesuits III," the cover lot (above), sold for an auction record of $23.28 million. The hammer price of $20.75 million was more than twice the $9 million high estimate. The work was sold with a guarantee, which means that the auction house gets a big percentage of the … [Read more...] about Sotheby’s Impressionist/Modern Sale: Ready for Prime Time

For the first time, you can view Sotheby's Impressionist/Modern evening sale here. Sorry I'm late in telling you this; I've been preoccupied with an article I'm writing! … [Read more...] about Sotheby’s Evening Auction Streams Live

As you might expect, no conscientious-objector architects rose to my challenge to state that they had refused, on principle, to participate in the Barnes Foundation's search. That's probably because no one did. But I did get this bemused comment from Steven Miller, executive director of the Morris Museum: Your question about architects refusing a project out of principal (e.g. … [Read more...] about BlogBack: Steven Miller on the Barnes’ Architectural Aspirants

I've already observed that the NY Times daily "Arts, Briefly" column on some days seems to be more a repository for tabloid news than cultural news. Today's installment is a particularly unfortunate case in point, with the two-column lead story devoted to Paris Hilton's firing of her press agent. (He even rates a photo, though not on the web.) In case no one knows who she is, … [Read more...] about NY Times “Arts, Briefly” Falls Asleep Covering Paris Hilton

Michael Conforti, whom I seem to meet at every expanded museum reopening that I attend (the High, Minneapolis and now Seattle), told me he's taking a little time off from his director's duties at the Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, MA, to work on three (!?!) books. He picked a nice place to do it: He'll be the Louis I. Kahn Scholar in Residence at the American Academy in … [Read more...] about Seattle Tattle—Part V: Some Comfort for Conforti

A young man with an administrative job at the Metropolitan Museum got in touch to thank me for highlighting the problem of non-competitive pay at cultural institutions, which he says extends even to the nation's premier art museum. His friends in the financial world, he noted, rake in two to three times what he is paid for similar tasks. Although the young Met staffer … [Read more...] about From a 20-Something on the Met’s Payroll: Still More on the Brain Drain

Is ArtsBeat, the NY Times new culture blog, not just dormant but dead? It's no longer to be found anywhere on the newspaper's "Arts" web page. As of now, it's had a four-day run, Apr. 27-30. Do we need to change its slogan to: "No culture, none of the time"? UPDATE: Sam Sifton, the NY Times culture editor, responds: We haven't discontinued ArtsBeat, nor have we suspended it. We … [Read more...] about NY Times BlogWatch, Continued

A major museum director, who requested anonymity, has just sent me this link to a BBC story that had been published just two days after my post detailing serious human rights questions recently raised about construction workers' conditions in the United Arab Emirates, where an ambitious four-museum project in Abu Dhabi is planned. Tim Mansel reports: They [construction workers] … [Read more...] about More on Construction Workers’ Plight in the United Arab Emirates

I finally finished unpacking my Seattle bags this morning (I'm a slow unpacker) and was astonished to see this sticker on my suitcase. Also landing with me in Newark airport late Sunday was Gérard Stora of Wildenstein, whose connection to the festivities was his gallery's sale of work to the expanded Seattle Art Museum, which opens to the public today. Indeed, some of the VIP … [Read more...] about Seattle Tattle—Part IV: A Convergence of NY Dealers

A week ago, in sharing with you the shortlist of Barnes Foundation's architectural aspirants, I wrote: I wish that architects of conscience would boycott this project, but the commission is too much of a plum. Today, Christopher Hawthorne, the LA Times' architecture critic, expresses the same wish. He writes: As a profession, architecture has never included many refuseniks, … [Read more...] about The Barnes Commission: Where are Architecture’s Conscientious Objectors?

(SEE READERS' COMMENTS, BELOW) Tom Sokolowski, director of the Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh, responds to Warhol Museum's Soda Pop Joins "World's Largest Collection of Coke Memorabilia": I read with some interest your comments about the loan of a number of the Warhol Museum's art and archival materials to a temporary exhibition to The World of Coke as part the opening … [Read more...] about BlogBack: Warhol Museum’s Director Defends Loans to Coca-Cola Museum

Promises, promises. The NY Times' new culture blog has remained dormant since Monday. I think they need to change their promotional slogan: "ArtsBeat is all culture, all the time." I suggest: "ArtsBeat is popular music, once in a while." But speaking of follow-through on promises, I'm glad the Times has decided to keep the gadfly position of public editor, which began in 2003. … [Read more...] about NY Times BlogWatch: The Beat Doesn’t Go On

We can only hope it's merely a Coke joke: Giovanna dell'Orto of Associated Press reports that some 30 Warhol Coca-Colas loaned by the Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh, will go on display later this month at the new World of Coca-Cola museum near the soft drink company's headquarters in Atlanta. We can only hope the Pittsburgh museum got lots of money for these branding … [Read more...] about Warhol Museum’s Soda Pop Joins “World’s Largest Collection of Coke Memorabilia”