Lee Rosenbaum's cultural commentary

I feel about guilty missing this, and Harold has just made me feel more guilty: A bum knee is preventing me from attending Harold Holzer's retirement reception at the Metropolitan Museum later today. My last-minute withdrawal from the guest list elicited this (tongue-in-cheek?) suggestion from my longtime facilitator (and sometimes detractor): Can’t you use a Met … [Read more...] about Hailing Harold Holzer: Retirement Bash Today for Metropolitan Museum’s Public Affairs VP UPDATED

In my previous post about the British Museum's collaboration with Abu Dhabi's planned Zayed National Museum, I questioned why the amounts paid to the London institution for its art loans and professional consultations were "commercially sensitive," exempting them from the disclosure requirements for public bodies under the UK's Freedom of Information Act. Here, in full, … [Read more...] about Cash-Cow Art Loans in Abu Dhabi: What “Commercial Interests” of British Museum Would Be Harmed by Disclosure?

"Art in the City," the winning design for the proposed (but not yet government-approved) Guggenheim Helsinki, is "a collection of [nine] linked pavilions, each orientated to respect the city grid, and anchored by a lookout tower," in the words of the jury statement on the selection of Paris firm Moreau Kusunoki Architectes, founded less than four years ago by the … [Read more...] about “Fragmented Exhibition Spaces”: Guggenheim Picks Architects for Helsinki

More on this here. Speaking of international museum collaborations, early-rising (or insomniac) U.S. art-lings, alert and online at 11 a.m. Helsinki time (4 a.m. NYC time), can be among the first to know which architectural firm has won the anonymous competition for the proposed Guggenheim Helsinki. The design, chosen from the six finalists, must successfully navigate the … [Read more...] about Guggenheim Helsinki Competition Winner Announced Tomorrow (fly-through video tonight)

My praise was premature in my Apollo magazine piece on satellite museums, where I favorably mentioned the British Museum's "collegial sharing" of "objects, exhibitions and expertise" with Abu Dhabi’s planned Zayed National Museum, contrasting this with the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi arrangement. It now seems, according to Martin Bailey's recent report in the Art Newspaper, … [Read more...] about Commercial, Not Collegial: British Museum’s Major Loans to Abu Dhabi’s Zayed National Museum

Are you hoping to purchase one of the multimillion-dollar apartments in the Jean Nouvel-designed 1,050-foot tapered tower adjoining the Museum of Modern Art... ...but wondering how you'll be able afford MoMA's pricey admission fee after emptying your bank account to acquire and furnish your posh new digs? Fear no more, affluent art-lings! As the recently … [Read more...] about Mondo Condo: Megabucks Residents at Nouvel Tower to Get Elite MoMA Privileges

“A party with a financial interest may be bidding” on Picasso's “Les Femmes d’Alger (Version ‘O’),” 1955, Christie's auctioneer Jussi Pylkkänen announced at the start of the May 11 auction where the flesh-flaunting "Femmes" attracted a $179.37-million sugar daddy. But who was that mysterious "party with a financial interest" and did he/she/it help to pump up the price? … [Read more...] about Cherchez “Les Femmes”: Mysterious Role of “Party with a Financial Interest” in the $179.37-Million Picasso

In a audacious double-play, French artist Pierre Huyghe has managed to sabotage both the Metropolitan Museum's Roof Garden and the Museum of Modern Art's Sculpture Garden---two of my favorite outdoor summer spaces in New York. Both are beloved refuges for those seeking tranquility and aesthetic pleasure...not to mention snacks, beverages and a place to take little … [Read more...] about Trashing Tranquility: Pierre Huyghe Invades Oases at Metropolitan Museum and Museum of Modern Art (with video)

The Frick expansion is dead. Long live the Frick expansion. Preservationists who fought the planned destruction of the Frick's 1970s gated "viewing garden," designed by Russell Page, have gotten their way without ever having to make a formal case to government approval bodies. In his reluctantly conciliatory statement released today, Ian Wardropper, the Frick … [Read more...] about The Frick’s Little Noticed “Prized Garden” Saved; Vital Expansion Still Planned

Reacting to ISIS's horrific plundering of and trafficking in cultural property to fund its operations, the House of Representatives yesterday passed H.R. 1493, a bill "to protect and preserve international cultural property at risk due to political instability, armed conflict, or natural or other disasters, and for other purposes." As described by its lead sponsor, Rep. … [Read more...] about House Passes Bill that Could Make U.S. Museums a Temporary Safe Haven for Syrian Antiquities

The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation thus far has resisted the demands of rowdy demonstrators decrying its continued involvement in Abu Dhabi, where workers rights violations have persisted, notwithstanding the Guggenheim's efforts to encourage reform. But now the Guggenheim finds itself confronted by critics who it can't so easily dismiss: Major museum officials … [Read more...] about Dismissive Missive: Could Peer Pressure Put an End to Guggenheim’s Abu Dhabi Misadventure?

UPDATE: More on this here. Whenever an artwork sells at auction for more than any previous work has fetched (as with Munch's "The Scream" and Bacon's "Three Studies of Lucian Freud"), the pundits pile on, decrying the questionable taste of megabucks buyers and the self-centered values of the 1%. They enjoy a frisson of schadenfreude at the prospect that the art-market bubble … [Read more...] about Bubble Alert: Are Third-Party Guarantors Inflating the Art Market? UPDATE

Malcolm Rogers, retiring Aug. 3 from his 21-year stint as director of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts (the longest such tenure in that museum's history), will soon be going the George Goldner route: He plans to advise a wealthy art-collecting couple. In announcing last January's retirement from the Metropolitan Museum, Goldner, who was chairman of its department of drawings and … [Read more...] about “Breaking the Brand”: Malcolm Rogers Reflects on Successful, Controversial Directorship at Museum of Fine Arts Boston (with video)

Help Wanted: Direct one of this country's major encyclopedic museums. No museum experience required. If Phillips Oppenheim, the headhunting firm responsible for the Brooklyn Museum's director's search, had put out such a wacky solicitation, an uproar of incredulity would have ensued. More likely, its job description (which I have not seen) for the position now awarded to … [Read more...] about Parsing Pasternak: What Were the Brooklyn Museum’s Trustees Thinking?

For those (like me) who sometimes feel that no one notices the quality of the work they're doing, Yoko Ono's remarks about the significance of her belated close-up at the Museum of Modern Art, Yoko Ono: One Woman Show, 1960–1971, should resonate. Then again, most of us don't have an internationally famous partner to participate in our projects and help boost our public … [Read more...] about Pro Bono Ono: Yoko Sees Her MoMA Show as Encouragement for Those Long Overlooked (with video)