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Okay, now that we've just viewed the greatest football game ever played---by my New Jersey Giants---we'll view another kind of offense after I finish jumping up and down. (I admit that I haven't watched that many games, but still...) Tackle that artwork! (COMING SOON) … [Read more...] about The Greatest Exhibition of Football Artistry Ever Seen!

WHD Koerner, "A Charge to Keep," 1916 Being admired by President Bush, apparently.. Jonathan Jones in the British Guardian today enlists a variety of experts to debunk W's enthusiasm for WHD Koerner's 1916 cowboy action painting, "A Charge to Keep." The painting itself is knocked for its "exhausted cliché of masculinity" and for its being "fairly dull." But the experts have the … [Read more...] about What’s the Worst Thing that Can Happen to an Artist’s Reputation?

Tennessee Attorney General Robert Cooper Jr. has given support---in the form of a memorandum filed this week in Davidson County Chancery Court---for serious consideration of an improbable plan to put some of Fisk University's Stieglitz Collection under the care of the as yet nonexistent Museum of African American Music, Art and Culture in Nashville, where Fisk is located. To … [Read more...] about Tennessee AG Likes New Proposal for Fisk’s Stieglitz Collection UPDATED

Roger Sant, recently elected to the new position of chairman of the Smithsonian Institution's board, told a press briefing Monday that 10 candidates were being interviewed for the top spot there, held by acting secretary Cristián Samper, since the resignation of Lawrence Small. The board hopes to announce its choice in March. The executive search firm employed by the … [Read more...] about New Smithsonian Secretary Expected to be Named in March: Down to 10 Finalists

Did you all catch that cheery curatorial class picture, in yesterday's NY Times, of the inaugural fellows of the Center for Curatorial Leadership, which was established last June to train art curators for museum directorships? Let me provide what was missing from the NY Times article, by identifying those fine faces in the photo: Back row, left to right: Raymond Horton, … [Read more...] about Curatorial Directors-in-Training Matched with Museum Superstars

Does Robert Olson, the alleged "smuggler" named in the search warrant affidavits for the recent federal raids on Southern California museums, have a press agent instead of a lawyer? His string of incautious and potentially damaging comments to journalists continues with dueling detailed profiles in today's LA Times and the NY Times. The more prudent response came from Jonathan … [Read more...] about Robert Olson: Call Your Lawyer

I'm really getting knocked lately. But I don't mind when it's a thoughtful, detailed, intelligent and passionate response. Kwame Opoku takes issue with my recent LA Times Op-Ed piece on the Afrikanet.info website: Many of the stolen cultural objects cannot simply be left where they are even if the owners agree finally to donate or, lend some of them....These are not just art … [Read more...] about A Thoughtful, Detailed Rebuttal to My “Make Art Loans, Not War” Op-Ed

Paul Werner, in the widely read Daily Kos, today takes me to task for having "never seen a scam she wasn't blind to" (so unfair!), because I questioned why the feds needed to stage a dramatic, highly publicized raid on museums to get the information they sought. Werner goes on to assert that "the Feds were looking for records of a less official nature, like a couple of written … [Read more...] about Clueless on the Kos: Museums and Donors’ Appraisals

Wall text in the Brooklyn Museum's Egyptian gallery At a time when officials at several Southern California museums have been sounding vague and clueless about current professional guidelines for antiquities acquisitions, how refreshing it is to see it all clearly laid out for visitors to read and understand, right near the entrance to the galleries devoted to the Brooklyn … [Read more...] about Brooklyn’s In-Your-Face Antiquities Policy UPDATED

I've been focusing on a couple of major stories, but there are lots of others that deserve mention. Let's do a rapid rundown: ---The Felch-Feds story in the LA Times keeps getting worse (or better, from a journalistic standpoint). Today Jason Felch and Mike Boehm write about a big collector of Asian art caught in the investigators' net---Barry MacLean, a trustee of the Art … [Read more...] about Links for Your Mink: More Thai Travails, Artful Forgers, Dubious Fisk Solution, Possible Theft-to-Order, Preemptive Loot Suits, Claims on Exhibition Proceeds

Given the Smithsonian Institution's admission, contained in yesterday's 70-page task force report on its revenue-generating activities, that the details of its 2006 deal with Showtime Networks should have been fully disclosed from the start to avoid controversy, the nine cultural institutions that have just signed on with Ovation TV should take care to spell out the parameters … [Read more...] about Museums on TV: New Ovation Deal; Smithsonian’s Report about Showtime Controversy

My invitation to a Metropolitan Museum's press preview Do you think that NYC museums just might be courting the hedge fund mogul and mega-collector, Steve Cohen? His shark-in-residence at the Metropolitan Museum will soon be joined by another Cohen Loan, to which the Met gave pride-of-place on the invitation (above) that I recently received to the imminent press preview for … [Read more...] about Another Steve Cohen Loan at the Met

"Don" Mary Beard It's not just because she said such nice things about CultureGrrl for the BBC, or even because her blog's title includes my husband's first name. Anyone who can write such a learned, lively post about the recent exhibition, Gods in Color: Painted Sculpture of Classical Antiquity at Harvard's Sackler Museum, and then attract no less than 48 incredibly erudite … [Read more...] about “A Don’s Life” Lives on My Blogroll

After almost two years of influential but unremunerative blogging, CultureGrrl is going commercial. Beginning within the next two weeks, you can run your ads on the site that has become required daily reading for the most important museum directors and curators, art dealers and auctioneers, collectors, art scholars, art critics and journalists, and just plain art lovers … [Read more...] about Advertise on CultureGrrl: Reach the Artworld’s Finest

There are possible changes brewing at Art in America magazine (where I am contributing editor), now that Peter Brant, who last spring had announced his intention to sell his half-share in Brant Publications, has done an about-face and decided to buy out the half-share of his ex-wife, Sandra Brant. In an emotional meeting with staffers on Thursday, Sandy indicated to longtime … [Read more...] about Art in America Magazine’s State of Uncertainty