Denver Airport Removes "Stressful" Art Denver Airport has removed three pieces of art from its terminal after six employees complained. The art - called "The Luggage Project" consisted of suitcases made by artists around the world. One of the suitcases is "splattered with glossy red and black paint and contains bricks. A bumper sticker inside the suitcase reads, 'Blood for oil. Billionaires for Bush'." Airport officials deemed the art "too stressful for passengers and workers to view in light of the heightened security following 9/11 Rocky Mountain News 07/30/04

Two Arrested For Stealing From The Whitney Two Whitney Museum employees have been arrested for stealing admission money. One, "Nafeem Wahlah, 29, the museum's manager of visitor services, stole $850,000 by voiding ticket sales and keeping the money. Investigators found $800,000 in a safe in her Brooklyn home, and she was caught on camera putting cash into her purse." Newsday 07/30/04

How To Define Art From Arab Region? There's been increasing attention on contemporary art from the Arab region in recent years. "But with this spike in recognition, a young generation is now struggling to assert a singular identity that doesn't conform to Western stereotypes of art from the region. As the channels of globalization open commercial opportunities abroad, it's increasingly difficult for Arab artists not to conform to the expectations of those flocking to the gallery shows, biennales, websites, and organizations dedicated to art from the region." Christian Science Monitor 07/30/04

Art On The Range "Las Vegas's Bellagio, it seems, is not Nevada's only art attraction: Reno is home to the Coeur d'Alene Art Auction, the nation's biggest and most successful auction of Western art. Every July, hundreds of well-heeled collectors from Maine to Hawaii flock here and spend millions of dollars on important works by Frederic Remington, Charles M. Russell, and other celebrated painters of the Old West. Any one of them will be glad to tell you why these works are here instead of at some fancy-pants auction house in Manhattan." OpinionJournal.com 07/30/04

Madison PAC Fully Funded (By One Donor) Wisconsin philanthropist Jerry Frautschi is even more popular in Madison's arts community today than he was previously. Back in the late 1990s, Frautschi agreed to pay the entire cost of designing and building a new performing arts center in the capital city. But no one was sure of exactly how much that cost was, until this week, when the Overture Center announced that Frautschi's gift would total more than $200 million, more than double previous press estimates. Frautschi agreed to pay for the center because he believes that such projects should not be built with public money. Wisconsin State Journal (Madison) 07/28/04

V&A: Death Spiral It looks increasingly as though Daniel Libeskind's Spiral addition to the Victoria & Albert Museum won't get built after all. "In theory its striking tumbling-boxes look is not the issue. But from the moment the Spiral was chosen over seven competing designs in 1996, it has stirred passionate debate here, dividing traditionalists from those eager to see London embrace avant-garde architecture. And inevitably this controversy has shadowed the museum's arduous search for financing." The New York Times 07/29/04

Should The Bamiyans Be Rebuilt? Should the Bamiyan Buddhas in Afghanistan be rebuilt? They were destroyed two years ago by the Taliban. "The statues looked solid but they were fashioned out of the cliff here because the sandstone is soft. Now the remains are mostly sand. The idea of rebuilding seems laughable. But these piles are the cause of one of the most passionate debates in archaeology." The Independent (UK) 07/27/04

Department Of Defacement: Disney Hall's New Sign Why does Disney Hall need a giant Claes Oldenburg/Coosje van Bruggen tie-and-collar on the sidewalk out front? Christopher Knight writes that "on a digitally fabricated picture of the sculpture on-site, it works like the giant Carpeteria genie or Michelin Man outside a rug shop or tire store — sculpture that functions as a sign. In less than a year, Disney Hall has become perhaps the most famous building in Los Angeles, which means one of the most famous in the nation. You wouldn't think it needs a sign." Los Angeles Times 07/28/04

Buildings Of Commitment Milwaukee is in love with its new Calatrava-designed Milwaukee Art Museum. But it's clear now that if the museum is going to be able to keep up its new treasure, there's going to have to be a new level of commitment to doing it. "The difference between simply owning an icon of international architecture and paying for maintenance on a complex, innovative, precedent-smashing structure isn't always understood." Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel 07/28/04

Housing That Makes An Ass Of Toronto Toronto's mammoth CityPlace project is "one of North America's largest residential developments and, at the risk of putting too fine a point on the matter, it's making an ass of downtown Toronto." How does it go wrong? Let me count the ways... The Globe & Mail (Canada) 07/28/04

Using Poor Workers As Fodder For Art - Is That OK? Spanish-born artist Santiago Sierra hired 10 Iraqi immigrant workers and sprayed them with liquid plastic to make his latest work. "My first reaction to the use of living men and women in this way was revulsion. I felt indignant that a modern artist should use vulnerable people to make work that will be shown to a small, rarefied, and comparatively affluent audience. Is it not a violation of human dignity to pay immigrants to participate in so hazardous and humiliating a process? As visitors to the exhibition, are we not somehow colluding in the economic exploitation of migrant workers?" The Telegraph (UK) 07/28/04

Ottawa Pulling Out Of Human Rights Museum Project? A new Canadian Museum for Human Rights, to be built in Winnipeg, was the dream of the late Izzy Asper. He put up much of the money and the Canadian government said it would chip in a significant amount. But then the country got a new Prime Minister, and though the project is well into the planning and design phase, the feds have reversed field. The government "position is simple and stark: There is no written commitment for federal funding beyond the $30-million, and therefore no commitment exists." The Globe & Mail (Canada) 07/28/04

Defending Diana's Fountain So Diana's memorial fountain in London had a few problems and had to be closed for awhile. The critics are howling. But "if we are to savage every teething problem and failure, how will we ever learn and progress? Things do go wrong." The Guardian (UK) 07/27/04

Cambodia For Sale Cambodia's heritage is being plundered and sold off on the black market. "Sales of such ordinary antiquities are booming at markets across the kingdom, robbing it of a rich history archaeologists are only just beginning to study after decades of conflict ended here in 1998, experts warn." Yahoo! (AFP) 07/27/04

Museums Resist Artifact Claims More and more countries are making claims on artifacts held in foreign museums. "Museums are concerned that if they acquiesce to one request, everyone with a claim will do the same and they will lose their incentive to be the museum they are. As a result, many shy away from it completely in order to protect their entire collections." BBC 07/27/04

Two Jailed In Van Gogh Theft Two men have been jailed for stealing two Van Gogh paintings. "The thieves were arrested separately in 2003, in Spain and in Amsterdam. The Van Gogh Museum has put in a claim for 1.8 million euros for the two uninsured paintings, which were stolen in 2002 and have never been recovered." (a judge has rejected that claim...) BBC 07/27/04

Beaverbrook Dispute To Arbitrator "England's wealthy Beaverbrook family and a Fredericton, Canada-based art gallery have agreed to let a Canadian arbitrator decide who owns tens of millions of dollars worth of paintings that the two sides have been feuding over for months." The Globe Mail (Canada) 07/27/04

Does The 21st Century Belong To China? Phillip Dodd is leaving as director of London's Institute of Contemporary Art to focus on Asia. "In my usual pompous way, I have a kind of wager that the 21st century belongs to a constellation of China and India and my deepest feeling is that Britain shows no sign of understanding this. There is a lack of engagement with that part of the world which is just crazy. My real worry is that we spent the past 10 years being so in love with ourselves - that's what Cool Britannia was, like Narcissus - we thought we were the centre of the world. But the world has moved on and we are bewildered." Financial Times 07/27/04

UK's Latest "Big Project" Disaster: Diana's Fountain London's memorial fountain to Diana, Princess of Wales, opened only last month by the Queen, has turned into a disaster. "The £3.6 million fountain, supposed to express Diana's spirit and love of children, is closed indefinitely over the school summer holidays after three people were hospitalised in accidents while paddling, among them a child who had to be treated for a head injury. It is the third and most serious stoppage, following break downs due to a malfunctioning pump and 'a rogue leaf'. An urgent investigation is now under way." The Observer (UK) 07/25/04

Goldberger: Eyes On Shanghai-On-The-Hudson "To just about everyone except the tax authorities, the Jersey City waterfront is a part of New York," writes Paul Goldberger. "Cesar Pelli’s tower is the anchor of a new city, a kind of Shanghai on the Hudson, that has sprung u over the past decade on what was once industrial land. It is an enormous complex—by far the largest cluster of skyscrapers in the region outside Manhattan." The New Yorker 07/26/04

Vandals Destroy/Steal Art In Venice And Rome "Italy’s rich heritage is under attack as never before from vandals and professional thieves. In a series of incidents in the past four weeks in Venice and Rome, hammers have been used to smash statues and fountains. In some cases, the heads of Roman statues more than 2,000 years old have been cleanly cut away using powerful circular saws, more than likely by professional thieves working to order." The Scotsman 07/26/04

The Mona Lisa's Serious Deterioration "Leonardo’s most celebrated work, the Mona Lisa, has deteriorated so significantly over the last year that conservation experts at the Louvre have ordered urgent analysis of its condition. It will then be moved to a new, specially-designed gallery as part of a E2.3 million project paid for by the Japanese company, Nippon TV. Although this project was announced a few years ago, it is finally coming to fruition." The Art Newspaper 07/26/04

Miami Mayor Threatens Museum Park Funding The mayor of Miami threatens to scuttle a $2 billion bond issue if proposed funding for two museums isn't removed. "The mayor said he is concerned that 'Museum Park' could turn into a fiasco like the Performing Arts Center being built in downtown Miami, which is almost two years late and now $240 million over its original budget." Miami Herald 07/26/04

Edinburgh's New Art Fair The Edinburgh Festival is one of Europe's great cultural institutions. But it didn't include visual art. After years of griping, a visual art festival will now be included. "The new Edinburgh Art Festival has risen, phoenix-like, from the ashes of despair. It was absurd that a festival founded in 1947 on the principle of showing, as the Lord Provost put it at the time, 'all the best in music, drama and the visual arts', should ignore an entire medium'." The Scotsman 07/26/04

Does The Pentagon Have "Undiscovered" Art? So Philadelphia schools have found a trove of artworks in their possession. Where else might there be public-owned art? Perhaps at the Pentagon? A Department of Defense employee "is/was resposible for maintaining accountability for this art collection, and in the mid 90s she was apparently fired/quit in part because a military Inspector General's team discovered that the works were generally unaccounted for and in many cases improperly stored (leaky buildings, rain, moisture, etc.)." Washington DC Art News 07/26/04

Loaned Aboriginal Art Seized In Australia Two pieces of Aboriginal art on loan from the British Museum have been seized in Australia. "Members of the Dja Dja Wurrung tribe secured an emergency order preventing the items being returned to the British Museum and the Royal Botanic Gardens. The two bark etchings and a Aboriginal ceremonial headdress were on loan to Museum Victoria in Melbourne. Gary Murray, of the Dja Dja, accused the museums of 'colonial arrogance'."
BBC 07/26/04

In Santa Fe: A Biennale With A Coherent Message Biennales are generally big agglomerations of a lot of "stuff" that rarely works together to deliver a coherent statement. But "last weekend, in a minor miracle of contemporary curating, New Yorker Robert Storr opened the fifth Santa Fe biennial, titled Disparities and Deformations: Our Grotesque. Storr's show, held at a contemporary art center called Site Santa Fe, channels the unnatural elegance of Raphael's Vatican decor, almost 500 years after the Italian master's death. At Site's invitation, Storr has brought together 53 contemporary artists whose works speak to one another, and to how the ancient notion of the grotesque pans out today." Washington Post 07/25/04

Why Wait For The New Building? New York's New Museum of Contemporary Art is currently homeless, as it waits for its new home in the Bowery to be completed, but rather than merely vanishing from the scene for two years, the museum is hoping to renovate its image in the interim. "The museum's curators were... acutely aware of the need to use the transition to the new building as an opportunity to think again about the definition of the museum. And so, while it has taken 7,000 square feet of space on the first floor of the Chelsea Art Museum on West 22nd Street for a year, its curators decided that the first major show would not be within walls, but outside them." The New York Times 07/25/04

Taking Inventory Of An Unexpected Treasure Trove When the Philadelphia public school district discovered earlier this month that it was in possession of an art collection potentially valued at tens of millions of dollars, it was hard to know what to do about it. What the district is doing is to mount a full-scale measure of what exactly it has, where it all came from, what it may or may not be worth, and how such a varied and amorphous collection of works could best be utilized in an educational sense. One thing is for sure - the district doesn't intend to sell any of the works - but it will take great resolve for officials to avoid being stampeded by the various interested parties sure to come out of the woodwork. Philadelphia Inquirer 07/25/04

• Previously: Philadelphia Schools Unearth Art Windfall Philadelphia public schools go on a hunt for artwork in schools and come up with art worth millions. "The artworks -- 1,200 in all, including paintings, sketches, sculptures, murals, tapestries and ancient artifacts -- had been donated to the school system or bought for small sums long ago. Over the decades, many of them were taken down when the walls were painted and were put into storage, where they apparently were forgotten altogether. The collection is probably worth tens of millions of dollars, school officials and art experts said." Washington Post 07/08/04

Tibetan Art To Shine At New NYC Museum "The Rubin Museum of Art opens on Oct. 2 with kite flying on the West Side piers, a Himalayan dog parade and some 100 fluttering prayer flags by contemporary artists. An infusion of $60 million has transformed a decommissioned temple of haute consumerism into an elegant, multihued jewel of a museum, designed by the architect Richard Blinder of Beyer Blinder Belle. Its 70,000 square feet, decked out in bright red, green, gold and blue, comprise America's largest, boldest and most significant museum devoted entirely to Tibetan and other Himalayan art." The whole gaudy enterprise is the brianchild of collector Donald Rubin, who bought the building that became the museum on a whim back in 1998. The New York Times 07/25/04

A New Generation Of Iraqi Art, Heavy On Despair "The war in Iraq has been especially disillusioning for young Iraqi artists, many of whom believed the American promises of freedom. As the old order fell, they sat in their cracked-window studios and at paint-splattered easels and dreamed of an Iraqi renaissance." But the despair which is now gripping the 'liberated' Iraq is overwhelming any thoughts of such a rebirth of culture, and the work of an Iraqi artist is now likely to reflect "the mayhem of a suicide bomb, the agony of a mother who has unearthed the dusty bones of her son, the confusion of his country today." The New York Times 07/25/04

Government Putting Avant-Garde Architects On Notice The wholesale renovation of Chicago's historic Soldier Field (home of the NFL's Bears) has been roundly panned by football fans and architecture critics alike since it was completed last year, and now, the federal government has weighed in with its own verdict on the ultra-modernist redesign, stripping the stadium of its place on the list of National Historic Landmarks. The decision "sent a message that resounds far beyond Chicago's aesthetically mangled lakefront football stadium: The government will react -- and strongly -- if avant-garde architects and arrogant politicians sack the nation's most extraordinary places." Chicago Tribune 07/25/04

Getting Smaller To Increase Visibility "For years, American cartoonists have complained that their world is getting smaller. Plagued by slumping readership and beholden to high profit margins, daily newspapers are busy reducing the size of comics and cutting those that fail to gain support from older readers. Meanwhile, cartoonists who want to try something different, like mammoth Sunday strips, sometimes get the cold shoulder from editors. So it's ironic that the next big thing in the comics world is a small cell-phone screen. But the distributors of strips from Crankshaft to Dick Tracy are working to get a foothold in that tiny space, and at least two cartoonists say they're thrilled to get the exposure." Wired 07/24/04

Pushing Absolutely No Hot Buttons Whatever happened to the grand old art of political buttons? Once upon a time, a presidential election brought us such memorable and wearable gems as "I Like Ike" and "I'm Daft About Taft" - and few could forget the classic Goldwater button that emphatically declared "In your heart, you know he's right," and the anti-Goldwater parody that shot back, "In your heart, you know he's nuts!" These days, though, every button from every campaign looks the same - blue backgrounds, American flags, the names of the candidates, and nothing else. At what point did one of America's cleverest forms of politicking become such a deadly bore? Washington Post 07/24/04

Who Cares Who Used To Own It? The British Museum has spent the last several years answering charges over the way it acquired several of its most prized pieces. But is the argument even focused on the right topic? "Controversy over ownership of its treasures obscures the British Museum's purpose. By offering everyone insights into cultural history, argues its director Neil MacGregor, the museum promotes a greater understanding of humanity." The Guardian (UK) 07/24/04

Picking A Fight Over Pencils and Paints Sydney artist Craig Ruddy was awarded Australia's prestigious Archibald Prize earlier this year. But the award has sparked a vicious court fight and is drawing a lot of attention from the media, after painter Tony Johansen took the Art Gallery of New South Wales Trust to court over a technicality. Specifically, Johansen claims that Ruddy's winning portrait is a mixed-media drawing, which should make it ineligible for a painting award. Nit-picking? Sure. But Ruddy is garnering a great deal of support from some interesting corners... Sydney Morning Herald 07/23/04

Art Tax Scores A Bundle (Of Art) A UK program that allows people to pay inheritance taxes in art rather than cash has netted the government art "worth more than £21 million, including paintings by Constable and Turner. BBC 07/22/04

Vandals Attack More Outdoor Italian Art "In the latest in a string of attacks on outdoor artworks in Italy, vandals have smashed a stone bee that adorns a centuries-old fountain by Renaissance master Gian Lorenzo Bernini in central Rome. The attack late on Monday night followed similar assaults in Rome and Venice in which vandals have used hammers and stones to chip away at priceless works of art." Sydney Morning Herald (Reuters) 07/22/04

Post-Fire - Rebuilding Hell Among the millions of dollars worth of artwork destroyed in Saatchi fire was the Chapman brothers' Hell, considered their best work. It consists of 10,000 plastic figures and took two years to make. Now the brothers have decided to rebuild. "We're going to make a second version, a more extensive, updated `Hell.' There are a lot of things that didn't go into the first `Hell.' This has given us a second opportunity to revisit it.' Much has changed since 1998, when they began working on Hell. 'At the time we had just lost our gallery and were unemployed. We had time on our hands'." The New York Times 07/22/04

WTC Dispute Heats Up "Architect Daniel Libeskind held out 'approval' on the Freedom Tower design in an attempted $800,000 shakedown, twin towers leaseholder Larry Silverstein charged in court papers yesterday." The two are at odds over the designs and Libeskind's participation. New York Daily News 07/21/04

Vancouver - Art Of The Sewer Vancouver is sewer shopping. The city put out a call to artists to design manhole covers and got 643 proposals. "We thought we'd receive maybe 300 submissions. We didn't know what to expect. At first you might think 'Who wants art on sewer covers? How mundane.' But man, it's going to be great,"
The Globe & Mail (Canada) 07/21/04

V&A Fails To Get Lottery Money For Spiral London's Victoria & Albert Museum has failed to win Lottery funding for its proposed Daniel Libeskind-designed addition, dubbed the Spiral extension. "Plans to build the "crumpled" construction in the museum's outside courtyard had faced strong criticism," and museum officials say the Lottery failure puts the project in jeopardy. BBC 07/21/04

Chicago's Giant Bean "Chicago has something new and unexpected in the heart of downtown: the Bean. Only a few days into the opening of Millennium Park, a mere four and a half years late, locals have taken their newest piece of public sculpture into their affections. The legume-shaped sculpture, a 110-ton hunk of highly polished steel, has been designed by Anish Kapoor, the Anglo-Indian sculptor. It is his first piece of public art in America, but remains unfinished." Financial Times 07/21/04

The Meaning Of (Bad) Art What is bad art? A Melbourne collector thinks she knows. "After a decade of ferreting in dusty op shops, she has nailed the criteria: a complete lack of technical skill; unusual, poor or tasteless subject matter; and an asking price of $2 or less. Round's collection of 200 original canvases, dubbed The Museum of Particularly Bad Art, is being unleashed on the public. Like a B-grade movie or a lovers' public spat, you can't look away. This is art so bad it's downright good." The Age (Melbourne) 07/17/04

Rare Statue Recovered From Seine A rare Claudel-Rodin statue was recovered from the bottom of the Seine in Paris after days of searching. "Stolen from Versailles several weeks ago, the statue - valued at £530,000 - was feared lost after those suspected of the robbery were arrested and confessed to throwing it into the Seine. But a police diving team launched a painstaking search of the river in an area where witnesses reported seeing the suspects dispose of the statue." The Scotsman 07/20/04

Laguna Fest Votes On Licensing Pageant "The Pageant of the Masters, a 70-year-old Laguna Beach California hallmark, reenacts art masterpieces with live models, called tableaux vivants. A 2002 plan by then executive director Steven Brezzo to have the pageant produced in other communities caused an uproar among members." Now members of the festival are considering whether to prohibit such licensing without approval of the festival members. Los Angeles Times 07/20/04

British MP's: Museums Must Be Better At Business A British parliamentary committee says museums need to be more business-like. "Unbelievably, some museums and galleries have made losses on activities that were supposed to generate income, and have an inadequate grasp on the costs involved," says one critic. "All museums and galleries must be more robust in their planning. They should establish five-year targets for income growth and set out how these will be achieved; in doing so they must properly identify which activities are profitable and the risks to be managed. Seventeen government-sponsored venues received grants worth £280m last year, and generated an additional £108m." BBC 07/20/04

A Pension Plan For Artists Artists often live in poverty, and old age is tough. Now there's a new plan to help out. "The Artist Pension Trust invites up-and-coming artists to contribute 20 pieces of their work to a tax-protected fund over a 20-year period on the theory that some of the art will appreciate significantly. All the artists will share the profits, even if their initial promise never translates into increased value. It's a way of taking advantage of the capitalistic nature of the market and mix in a healthy dose of socialism to create a hybrid form." The New York Times 07/20/04

Understanding Jasper Johns "Jasper Johns might have initially looked like a pop artist, but there was always something deeper going on. And if, over the past half-century, Johns has deepened what was already a pretty complex painting game, he has also mystified us. If, at the end, he is painting anything, it is the process of the mind at work, filled with stray thoughts, its affinities and enthusiasms. A mind led by curiosity, and haunted by its own past, from which it cannot extricate itself." The Guardian (UK) 07/20/04

Dodd Quits Institute Of Contemporary Art Philip Dodd is resigning after seven years as director of London's Institute of Contemporary Art. "What I have done is accept that the walls between art and science, culture and economics, art and politics have collapsed. I have tried to work in the rubble of those walls and accept that the distinctions between those things don't exist any more." The Guardian (UK) 07/20/04

Liverpool Dissipates Cloud Liverpool has abandoned plans to build the Cloud, a 10-storey globe that "would have been the 'Fourth Grace' on the city's Pier Head, joining three others landmarks, including the Liver building, known as the Three Graces. But yesterday the public sector partners involved in the scheme said it was "no longer viable" due to rising costs, design changes and potential planning problems. The structure, designed by Will Alsop, whose work includes the Peckham library in London, caused controversy in December 2002 when promoters announced it had won an architectural competition." The Guardian (UK) 07/20/04

Libeskind's Shrinking Cool Daniel Libeskind is suing the developer of the World Trade Center site. "Libeskind, with his spritely face and quirky glasses, had been the epitome of compact cool when his design won. Now he was girding to descend into the murk and mire of a court battle. His suit claims that Silverstein merely paid lip-service to the master plan because his 'actions, then and up to the present time, bespeak a clear intent to derail the project wherever he perceives a conflict with his personal financial interests'. All the high-minded rhetoric and outward symbolism (1776, the tower's height in feet, is the year the Declaration of Independence was signed) had apparently been erased by the dirty business of litigation." Financial Times 07/19/04

A Change In Emphasis For NY Historical Society (Is That OK?) Is the New York Historical Society changing its focus because a donor has dangled a prized collection in front of it? Critics suggest that the collectors chose the society "because its history of financial weakness has left it malleable." The New York Times 07/19/04

New Course For National Museum Of Australia The new National Museum of Australia director Craddock Morton has a big job in front of him. "His mission? To deliver much-needed stability to the NMA after the so-called history wars brought its exhibits - especially those relating to indigenous history - under fire and provoked a federal Government review." The Australian 07/20/04

Moscow To Stage First Art Biennale "The month-long event is scheduled to open January 18, 2005, in a range of state-owned art venues, including the Tretyakov Gallery, the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, the Central House of Artists, the Shchusev Architecture Musem and the Moscow Museum of Contemporary Art." Moscow Times 07/16/04

The Other Barnes Debate There is more to the great battle over the future of Philadelphia's Barnes Foundation than just an argument over the location of the permanent collection, says Edward Sozanski. In fact, the future of the Barnes's educational program is the subject of a debate that truly gets to the heart of the foundation's mission. "The Barnes gospel of aesthetic analysis, which the founder expounded in a number of books, letters and public utterances over three decades, contains the key to the collection. Yet over the last six years, the Barnesian doctrine, which remained reasonably intact for more than 60 years through several administrations, has been strained by what amounts to a theological schism." Philadelphia Inquirer 07/18/04

Greece's New Temple Of Athleticism "The Olympic Games are returning to Greece. And Santiago Calatrava, a Spanish genius of Parnassian accomplishments, has redesigned a sports complex that now embodies the tensile strength of athletes in their glory... Some engineers criticize Calatrava because prominent features of his buildings are structurally inessential. They serve purely expressive purposes. Architects, meanwhile, fault his work for appearing to be stuck in the 20th century. But the appeal of Calatrava's work, if you are susceptible to it, lies in its hybrid quality. Rather than fusing architecture and engineering, the designs arise from the struggle between them." The New York Times 07/18/04

Millennium Park Makes Its Debut One of the most controversial civic art projects in recent U.S. history opened to the public this weekend, and Blair Kamin was bowled over. "Remember the dusty pit that sat for decades amid the beaux-arts splendor of Grant Park, Chicago's front yard? Well, it's gone, turned into a joyful park that's sprinkled with smile-inducing sculpture and mind-bending 'wow-chitecture.' This is the miracle of Millennium Park, the $475 million fusion of old-fashioned world's fair and newfangled cultural spectacle that opened Friday. Yes, there have been huge cost overruns and delays, and they have resulted in some less than ideal park spaces. But get real: Did anyone ever ask Eiffel whether he busted the bud-get on his tower? The park is found ground -- a no place that is suddenly a someplace." Chicago Tribune 07/18/04

• Daley's Park, For Better Or For Worse Millennium Park will be many to things to many people, but to Chicago mayor Richard M. Daley, it will be his legacy. "When Mr. Daley took office 15 years ago, the site, north of the Art Institute and east of Michigan Avenue, contained old railroad tracks and gravel parking lots." Mr. Daley's vision for a useful public space became the biggest civic art project in the city's history, and depending on whom you ask, it is either a testament to the skill and vision of the designers and fundraisers who brought it together, or an overpriced boondoggle spearheaded by a mayor who cut the public out of the process. The New York Times 07/18/04

• Gehry Does It Again The centerpiece of Millennium Park is the new Gehry-designed Jay Pritzker Pavilion, which will serve as the new 11,000-seat home to Chicago's Grant Park Orchestra. "Even in a city renowned for its big moves, Gehry's project makes for an extraordinary structural drama. And the stage on which that drama occurs -- a new 24.5-acre park at the foot of the downtown skyline -- plays perfectly to the architect's strengths, allowing his explosively sculptural forms all the room they need to preen, as they were not free to do in his dazzling, but more tightly confined, Walt Disney Concert Hall in downtown Los Angeles." Chicago Tribune 07/18/04

Rescuing a Futuristic Icon of the Past "Philip Johnson's steel and concrete fantasia in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, designed as the New York State Pavilion for the 1964-65 World's Fair, has been crumbling for decades. Now it is finally getting some attention... The Queens Theater in the Park — which produces performances geared to the borough's immigrant communities — is planning to build an 8,000-square-foot addition to its space, a small section of the pavilion that was called the Theaterama during the World's Fair... But the shiny new addition will also call attention to the blighted condition of [the huge 'Tent of Tomorrow], which appears to be on the verge of collapse." The New York Times 07/17/04

Chicago's Withering Art Fair "The Chicago art establishment, from museums to galleries to artists, still seems shaken by what it perceived to be the failure this spring of its internationally known contemporary art fair." In fact, Art Chicago has been gradually losing the interest of the international art community for years now, and the flurry of activity surrounding this weekend's much-ballyhooed opening of the city's new Millenium Park is meant in large part to put Chicago back on the map where art is concerned. Art Chicago's organizers insist that a comeback is imminent, but observers are skeptical, especially as the fair prepares to move to temporary quarters in a 125,000-square foot tent. The New York Times 07/17/04

Nazi Association Taints Flick Exhibition "As Berlin prepares to unveil one of the world's biggest private art collections, curators said Tuesday they had recruited historians to shed light on the controversial Nazi-linked past of its founder. The collection of Friedrich Christian Flick, comprising some 2,500 works, is due to open in September. Berlin beat out other world capitals that had vied to host its first public exhibition. But the event has faced fierce criticism already, especially from Jewish community leaders in Germany, who rail against showcasing a collection begun by Flick's grandfather, a notorious collaborator of the Third Reich." Miami Herald (AFP) 07/15/04

Globalism... Hold The Cliches "As a result of cultural and economic shifts in the art world, exploding globalism, and the high costs of more traditional shows, a growing number of exhibitions both in the US and abroad are devoted to replacing clichéd preconceptions with the vital, modern work of contemporary artists from a wide variety of cultures." Christian Science Monitor 07/16/04

Troubled Times For Seattle Museums Regina Hackett trains a tough eye on Seattle-area museums and finds a troubled landscape. The Bellevue Art Museum is still hoping to reopen this fall. The Henry Gallery is struggling with a reduced budget. The Seattle Art Museum, planning a major expansion of its home and hoping to open a large sculpture park, plans to close for a year during construction... Seattle Post-Intelligencer 07/15/04

A New Art Critic's Education Seattle's The Stranger magazine gets a new art critic and he's a bit put off by his reception in local galleries. "There is a mentality and an attitude about art--perhaps stemming from a protectiveness toward it, since it can be so easily dismissed--whose core conceit is exclusion: You don't have the tools to understand this; you shouldn't be here. Elitism has driven me away from the art world several times over the years--in Chicago, in New York, and, yes, in Seattle. (Curiously, in London of all places, I never encountered such starchiness.) And this has been true for many of my friends--smart, credentialed people. It's the real crisis--more than funding, more than education--that plagues contemporary American art." The Stranger 07/15/04

DC Gives $40 Million To Corcoran Gallery The District of Columbia city council has voted to give $40 million to the Corcoran Gallery to help finance its new Frank Gehry wing. Yahoo! 07/15/04

Philly Museum Splits Curatorial Duties "The Philadelphia Museum of Art has divided the leadership of its department of modern and contemporary art between two senior curators, an action that director Anne d'Harnoncourt said enhances the museum's ability to manage a growing collection of art made from 1900 to the present. Michael R. Taylor, acting head of the department since November, has been named Muriel and Philip Berman curator of modern art. He will oversee collections and exhibitions of works from the first half of the 20th century. The museum is seeking an equivalent curator of contemporary art, whose purview will be from the mid-20th century to the present." Philadelphia Inquirer 07/15/04

Roman Glass Sets Auction Record An exceptionally crafted Roman bowl cut from a single block of glass has set a record at auction in London this week, fetching £2,646,650. The sum is the most ever paid for a piece of ancient glass. "The Constable-Maxwell cage-cup dates from the third century and is decorated with a delicate lattice design. It has survived intact for 17 centuries. It is the third time the item has set the record for the highest price paid for a piece of ancient glass." BBC 07/15/04

A Bigger China Means Stress On Heritage "With China's economy expanding and tourism growing even faster, insiders and outsiders worry that China will not take the time and trouble, or have the resources and expertise, to preserve its rich cultural heritage. Much has already been lost."
The New York Times 07/15/04

In Praise Of Saatchi (Really!) Richard Dorment has new appreciation for Charles Saatchi's place in the artworld. "Since the fire, I've become much more aware of what the Saatchi Gallery means for the visual arts in this country. It has many faults - the difficult exhibition spaces at County Hall, the vagaries of Charles Saatchi's taste, a PR machine in overdrive - but there is nowhere else in the world where so much new art is made instantly accessible to the public on a regular basis. I suppose you never know what you have until you see how easily it could disappear." The Telegraph (UK) 07/15/04

Police To Gallery: Cover Up Nude! Police have forced a gallery to cover a nude sculpture. "Police said the model at the A Gallery, in Wimbledon, south-west London, was deemed offensive under the Indecent Displays Act 1991." BBC 07/14/04

A Caravaggio In Hiding? "A painting sold at auction for £75,000 three years ago could be worth millions after experts authenticated it as a work by Italian master Caravaggio. It had been sold at Sotheby's in New York in 2001, where the catalogue listed it as the possible work of 17th Century artist Carlo Magnone. But Sotheby's remains "adamant" that the painting is not by Caravaggio." BBC 07/14/04

Flamboyant SF Arts Czar Resigns Arts Commission Stanlee Gatti, the "irrepressible arts advocate and event designer to the rich and famous" has resigned as president of the San Francisco Arts Commission. "He steered the agency during the boom years of the 1990s, when an unprecedented number of public artworks, paid for by the 2 percent cut public art gets from the budget of every new civic project, appeared around the city: 57 permanent pieces, including installations at the airport by noted artists such as Vito Acconci and Ned Kahn, Robert Arneson heads along the Embarcadero and a score of temporary installations by big names like Bill Viola and the late Keith Haring." San Francisco Chronicle 07/14/04

Earliest Village In American Northwest? Workers in western Washington state unearth one of the earliest villages ever discovered in the Pacific Northwest. "Among the artifacts to surface from the grounds of Tse-whit-zen -- a likely former winter village of the Klallam peoples of the upper Olympic Peninsula that carbon dating so far shows could be as old as 1,719 years -- are remnants of a longhouse and at least two other tribal houses crafted from cedar. Discovery of such structures is significant, Larson said yesterday, because they may be among the oldest remnants of homes ever found in the Northwest." Seattle Post-Intelligencer 07/14/04

Recalling Old American/European Controversies "Old controversies over the influence of the European avant-garde on American art seem almost quaint, if indeed somewhat paranoid. Yet some of those old polemics were characterized by a ferocity that is worth recalling, if only as a measure of how radically some things have changed for the better in this country, at least in the realm of high art." New York Observer 07/14/04

Zero Sum Game - Libeskind Sues Over WTC Job Architect Daniel Libeskind is suing the developer of the World Trade Center site. "In court papers filed July 13, Mr. Libeskind claimed that Mr. Silverstein owes his firm $843,750 for the architectural work it performed on the Freedom Tower between July and December of 2003. Mr. Silverstein allegedly last offered around $225,000 for the work, a figure that Mr. Libeskind has called "insulting," and which he has said is in retaliation for the way his vision for the skyscraper clashed with that of Mr. Silverstein’s architect on the project, David Childs, of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill." New York Observer 07/13/04

Pope Returns Icon To Russia "Pope John Paul is to remove one of the Orthodox church's most revered icons from his private chapel and dispatch it to Moscow in an attempt to improve the Vatican's tense relations with the Russian Orthodox hierarchy." The Guardian (UK) 07/13/04

The Caveman's "Sistine Chapel" Artwork dating back 13,000 years has been found in a cave in England. "The site of the find, Church Hole Cave at Creswell Crags, is being called the "Sistine Chapel" of the Ice Age because it contains the most ornate cave art ceiling in the world. The ceiling extends the earliest rock art in Britain by approximately 8,000 years and suggests that a primary culture unified Europeans during the Ice Age." Discovery 07/13/04

Drawing The Line - The Gatsbyesque Collector The art world has been buzzing about Shipley Miller, "head of the Judith Rothschild Foundation, ever since he hatched a Gatsbyesque plot in the spring of 2003: He would travel the globe for one year acquiring contemporary drawings with several million dollars of the foundation’s money. Then he would usher the collection into MoMA, where he serves on the drawings committee, with a museumwide show." New York Magazine 07/12/04

Art Of The Camera Phone "London-based photo-digital artist Henry Reichhold is using Nokia 7600 and 7610 camera phones to create huge panoramic images of events and places. Using the phones to snap a series of images and then stitching them together with software, he's produced stunning landscapes of London seen during both day and night." BBC 07/07/04

The Lacklustre Old Masters The buzz at Sotheby's last week was high as a Vermeer was put on the block. But "the atmosphere at Christie's Old Masters sale a few hours earlier could scarcely have been more different. There were empty seats, little buzz and a lacklustre mood. Several of the most important pictures failed to sell, including El Greco's Saint Francis meditating, estimated at £700,000 to £1 million, Il Vanvitelli's The Piazza del Popolo, Rome, expected to fetch £1 million to £1.5 million, and Bodegon with bread by Luis Melendez." The Telegraph (UK) 07/13/04

Are Landmark Buildings Ruining Our Cities? "The true architectural icon is a building that is unmistakable, often provocative, and carries cultural signals far beyond its purpose. Obvious iconic landmarks include the Sydney opera house, the Pompidou centre, even the new Scottish parliament building - all of which initially met with disapproval. These modern icons simultaneously signal their function and their public importance. They convey the spirit of their age; they are both useful and memorable. But there are also less significant buildings that aspire to iconic status but do not always deserve the profile their sponsors demand." The Guardian (UK) 07/13/04

Russian Fakes - A Growing Problem There is growing awareness that there are many fakes of Russian master paintings on the market. "London sales of Russian masters exceed £10 million a year. But behind the scenes there are growing recriminations in the secretive world of Bond Street dealers. One accuses Sotheby's, which dominates the market, of lack of competence. Another Russian dealer said: 'Western auctioneers now have fakes in their catalogues all the time'."
The Guardian (UK) 07/13/04

Critic: Clear Channel's "Art" Vision Should Give Museums Pause Media giant Clear Channel is now in the museum exhibition business. But at least one critic has big reservations. "Nowhere in the promotional words from the corporation do we see the word 'art' or the phrase 'high-quality art exhibition.' The promotional phrases are all about size and scale. This should give any art museum pause. If "Saint Peter and the Vatican" is a harbinger of Clear Channel shows to come, it should give art museums further pause. There are a smattering of marvelous things in the show. For example, there's a small Bernini sculpture that should wow anyone who loves sculpture. But the presentation is way too heavy on gold, silver and bejeweled artifacts and too light on paintings and sculptures. San Diego Union-Tribune 07/11/04

Painting Revises Account Of Captain Cook's Death "When the explorer Captain James Cook was killed on the island of Hawaii, the tragedy was immortalised as the murder of a peaceable man. But more than two centuries later, a painting has been discovered that shows a rather different version of Cook's demise, with the captain engaging in hand-to-hand combat with the islanders." The Independent (UK) 07/13/04

Met Museum Vs. The Neighbors "The Metrpolitan Museum has long been the jewel in the crown of the Upper East Side, a sprawling wedding cake of a building celebrating the marriage of art and money. In the past few years, however, some of the museum’s neighbors have begun to see the Metropolitan less as a refined repository of priceless cultural artifacts than as a tacky tourist attraction of idling school- and sightseeing buses, souvenir sellers, and street performers—far more democratic than Fifth Avenue has ever considered desirable. Then, in 2000, the Met threw down the gauntlet, pushing a plan through the Parks Department that called for a 200,000-square-foot expansion" and the neighbors revolted... New York Magazine 07/12/04

Exhibiting For All The Marbles Unsuccessful at convincing the British Museum to return the Parthenon Marbles, the Greek government is staging an exhibition at the Parthenon to run while the Olympics are in Athens in August. "The intention of the exhibit will be to show the world our case, that we would like to unite the pieces of the frieze and the statues. Now we think the Olympics will be a chance to get the world interested, to put the pressure on the British to finally return these important pieces of our heritage." Boston Globe 07/12/04

Checking Out The Monets-To-Vegas Deal A Association of American Museum Directors is examining the deal that sent 21 of Boston's Museum of Fine Arts' Monets to a Las Vegas casino last winter. "The AAMD is concerned that commercial initiatives such as this could jeopardise the not-for-profit status of museums in the US and the directors’ organisation is now moving towards self-reform before tax-hungry legislators target museums and end their tax-exempt status. The AAMD guidelines stipulate that 'In any decision about a proposed loan from the collection, the intellectual merit and educational benefits, as well as the protection of the work of art, must be the primary considerations, rather than possible financial gain'.” The Art Newspaper 07/09/04

Barnes-Lovers Gear Up For Battle In September a judge will hear further arguments about whether the Barnes Collection ought to be allowed to move to downtown Philadelphia. "On the face of it, opponents of the move appear overmatched by the trustees, the deep-pocketed foundations subsidizing the plan, the Philadelphia tourist industry, and many cultural leaders. But they have begun to mobilize for what might be the Barnes loyalists' last chance to keep the foundation's collection in Merion and its school intact. The mobilization has taken two forms, fund-raising and public relations." Philadelphia Inquirer 07/11/04

Today's Architects - Flashy Design Over Structural Soundness? What's wrong with architects these days? There have been a number of high-profile design failures - leaking rooks, structural malfunctions.... "These setbacks and controversies have allowed sober-minded skeptics to accuse the profession of abandoning its original purpose — holding up a roof and keeping out the weather — in favor of reckless and phantasmagorical aesthetic effects, best exemplified by the wavy titanium surfaces of Frank Gehry's Bilbao Guggenheim or the angled walls of Mr. Koolhaas's new Central Library in Seattle." The New York Times 07/10/04

Gavelling Vermeer It's not every day that a Vermeer is auctioned. Indeed, the last time one came on the market was 80 years ago. So the auction itself was an extraordinary event... National Public Radio [audio link] 07/10/04

All Those Museums In Search Of An Identity "Just as New York is shaking off its sorrows and crawling out of debt, making new claims on the world stage with a bid for the Olympics, our museums seem to be going through weird convulsions, falling apart, abandoning their collections, being hijacked by trustees or suffering delusions of grandeur. This is their most precarious moment in many years." From the "perennially insecure" Whitney to the dumbed-down Brooklyn Museum to the cash-strapped Guggenheim, it seems that none of the city's venerable art institutions are safe from the new malaise. The New York Times 07/11/04

Gehry's New Chicago Landmark "It's hard to say which part of Frank Gehry's Jay Pritzker Pavilion, opening Friday as the $50 million centerpiece of Chicago's new Millennium Park, is the most striking. Is it the bandshell itself, with its 50-foot steel-and-glass doors that roll in and out from the sides? Is it the almost baroque proscenium... that frames the stage with a 120-foot-tall fantasia of billowing shapes clad in brushed stainless steel? Or is it the metal trellis that crisscrosses like a vast spider-web above the heads of the potentially 11,000-member audience? Whatever the answer, it's clear that many people are happy with the combined result." Chicago Sun-Times 07/11/04

Please Hand Cancel "A small London gallery has been told by Royal Mail to destroy prints showing postage stamps of the Queen in a gas mask - and tell them of anyone who owns copies. The series, Black Smoke, Stamps of Mass Destruction, was created last year in protest at the Iraq war by James Cauty, a former member of the art-world pranksters and rock musicians known variously as KLF and the K Foundation." The UK's postal service is claiming that the works violate its copyright. The Guardian (UK) 07/09/04

Is Sotheby's Trading In Forgeries? This year, Sotheby's came within hours of auctioning off what it claimed was an authentic painting by the Russian artist Ivan Shishkin. The asking price was £700,000, a huge number, especially when it turned out that the painting was actually a forgery created on a £5,000 work by an obscure Dutchman. The backstage fallout from the near-auction has been swift and cutting. "Behind the scenes there are growing recriminations in the secretive world of Bond Street dealers. One accuses Sotheby's, which dominates the market, of lack of competence." Others are alleging that this is hardly the first time the auction house has been duped. The Guardian (UK) 07/10/04

Casino Bill = Philly Design Disaster Philadelphia is to have casinos under a new measure passed last week. The deal, writes Inga Saffron, is a potential design disaster for the city. "The slots bill, which was rushed through the legislature without the usual opportunities for public comment, strips Philadelphia of planning and zoning powers over its future casinos. Instead, a seven-member, state-run gambling control board will decide the big design issues, from the location of the casinos down to the location of their garage driveways." Philadelphia Inquirer 07/09/04

Diana Museum To Close? The Eral Spencer has denied reports that the museum dedicated to his sister, Diana, Princess of Wales, will close because of declining visitor numbers. "Last year, an estimated 80,000 people turned up to visit the tribute. Accounts in 2003 showed the 450-acre Althorp estate had made a loss for the past three years. It is said to need 120,000 visitors annually to break even." The Guardian (AP) 07/09/04

Royal Mail To Gallery: We Own Queen's Picture The UK post office has told a London art gallery to "destroy prints showing postage stamps of the Queen in a gas mask - and tell them of anyone who owns copies. Royal Mail says Cauty's prints - which were on show at the Tom Tom Gallery in Covent Garden - breach its copyright, based on photos of a portrait bust of the Queen by Arnold Machin." The Guardian (UK) 07/08/04

Philadelphia Schools Unearth Art Windfall Philadelphia public schools go on a hunt for artwork in schools and come up with art worth millions. "The artworks -- 1,200 in all, including paintings, sketches, sculptures, murals, tapestries and ancient artifacts -- had been donated to the school system or bought for small sums long ago. Over the decades, many of them were taken down when the walls were painted and were put into storage, where they apparently were forgotten altogether. The collection is probably worth tens of millions of dollars, school officials and art experts said." Washington Post 07/08/04

Vermeer Sells For $30 Million A Vermeer painting - the first to come on the market in 80 years - has sold for $30 million. "The overflowing salesroom burst into applause when George Gordon, an expert in the Sotheby's old-master paintings department, took the winning bid by telephone. While the auction house is not saying who the buyer was, it is believed to be Stephen A. Wynn, the Las Vegas casino owner." The New York Times/04 07/08

Collecting Big - The World's Art Collectors ARTnews has compiled its annual list of the world's top art collectors. "When do you become a serious collector who might make the Top Ten, and how long do you remain one? It kicks in at about the age of 45. Of course, you’ve got to be extremely wealthy. Usually, you’re not willing to spend lots of money on art unless you reach that age and you have the confidence to do it. It lasts for about eight to ten years.” ARTNews 07/04

SFMOMA Rethinks Definition of 'Modern Art' The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) didn't just reorganize its permanent collection this spring - it decided to ask some fundamental questions about what can truly be said to constitute 'modern art' in the 21st century. "The museum has decided to work more carefully with the permanent collection... 'partly as a philosophical corrective, to wean the public and the museum from an unrealistic diet of blockbuster shows.'" San Francisco Chronicle 07/07/04

Another Vermeer (Ho Hum) There's another Vermeer. "That means that, instead of there being - depending on who is doing the counting - about 35 authentic Vermeers in existence, there are now about 36. So why is there not more euphoria? Why no breathless feature articles, no documentaries on TV? And why are Sotheby's estimating that at the auction tomorrow it will make not more than £3 million, or not much more than a rather average Roy Lichtenstein recently reached?" The Telegraph (UK) 07/07/04

Cologne Cathedral On Endangered List "Cologne cathedral, a masterpiece of Gothic architecture, was placed on Unesco's list of endangered World Heritage sites yesterday, its visual integrity threatened by skyscrapers being built on the opposite bank of the Rhine." The Guardian (UK) 07/07/04

Venezuela's Curious Art Boom Venezuela has had a tough few years. Now - curiously - it's on an art-buying boom. "In a country hit hard by economically devastating antigovernment strikes, a 2002 failed coup and capital flight that has amounted to billions of dollars, a curious phenomenon is unfolding: The affluent are seeking to shelter their fast-depreciating currency, the bolívar, in art, demonstrating once again that art can flourish in times of crisis, whether in Nazi-occupied Europe 60 years ago, in Communist Cuba in the 1990's or in this politically charged South American country." The New York Times 07/07/04

First Antarctic Painting On Display "The first painting of Antarctica, which has been hidden under another painting for the last 200 years, is going on public view in London. The painting was the work of artist William Hodges, who joined Captain Cook's second epic voyage in 1772." BBC 07/06/04

Coffee Table Architecture The gorgeous new Phaidon Atlas of Contemporary World Architecture Is a grand proposition."At a total of 824 pages, the Atlas includes entries on 1,052 buildings built over the last six years by 656 architects in 75 countries. The text is accompanied by 62 maps and 7,000 illustrations. The book comes in its own clear plastic carrying case, and is a foot and a half tall and 12 inches wide and weighs about 18 pounds. At $160 plus tax, it also comes with sticker shock. Though it's priced in reference-book territory, most copies won't ever see the inside of an architecture firm or library." Slate 07/01/04

The Amazing Tillie, The Wonder-Dog/Artist "The 5-year-old Jack Russell is an artist who has had her paintings exhibited in New York, Los Angeles and Europe. She recently opened a gallery and store in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, the borough's epicenter of all things artsy and hip. Her intense, instinctive scratch marks -- in red, blue, yellow and black -- have drawn comparisons to abstract artists Jackson Pollock and Cy Twombly." Washington Post (AP) 07/04/04

Chicago - Recapturing The Millennium "Chicago's reputation for innovative architecture has languished in recent decades, its silhouette blighted by undistinguished glass and steel office buildings, monolithic concrete condominium towers and ubiquitous three-storey brick apartments. Conceived in 1997 and intended as part of the city's celebration of the new century, Millennium Park was aimed at recapturing the spirit of innovative design that had brought Chicago architectural glory." The Guardian (UK) 07/05/04

Stolen Statue Epidemic "According to art recovery experts there is an epidemic in stolen statuary in England and Wales that is being fuelled by the increasing demand for salvage to feed the boom in home and garden renovations. Gangs of thieves, who study magazines such as Country Life to locate their spoils, find the lead and stone figurines, iron benches and sundials easy plunder." The Guardian (UK) 07/05/04

Family Sues Liz Taylor Over Van Gogh "Actress Elizabeth Taylor is seeking a court declaration that she is the rightful owner of a painting by Van Gogh, to which the heirs of a former Jewish resident of Berlin have asserted a claim." The Art Newspaper 07/02/04

Bank Customers Sue Billionaire Russian To Claim Faberge Eggs Only days after nine Faberge Imperial eggs and some of the approximately 180 other Fabergé pieces belonging to Russian billionaire Viktor Vekselberg went on display in the Kremlin, the clients of a failed Russian bank filed a lawsuit asking that the "newly acquired Fabergé imperial eggs be confiscated by the authorities and auctioned to recoup the money they say they lost through their business with the bank." The Art Newspaper 07/02/04

The Hip Near-Past For Sale When it opened in 1998, the Damien Hirst-designed Pharmacy restaurant was the hippest thing in London. Maybe it was so hip it failed to outlive its opening moments, and last September it closed. Now the restaurant's contents are being auctioned - relics of a singular moment. "There will be paintings with estimates of over $550,000 as well as objects expected to sell for under $100. A group of 10 of the artist's much-loved butterfly paintings, each with a bright color background and each with love in the title, are estimated to fetch over $110,000. The auction will also have 11 of his well-known medicine cabinets and a molecular model sculpture with estimates each from $183,360 to $275,000." The New York Times 07/05/04

Minimalism (Finally) Gets Its Due "For years, minimalism shows were rare events. In just the last year or two, however, they've hit the big time, big-time... The current flood of minimalism exhibitions indicates a new desire to come to grips with the movement as a whole and to rethink some of the narrow polemics that have built up around it. Instead of being part of the live, ferocious debates of contemporary art, with people choosing sides for and against, minimalism is now the subject of measured, art-historical contemplation. Which means it has truly arrived -- next stop, official, unquestioned Old Master status." Washington Post 07/04/04

The Disappearing Stadium "Imagine a sports stadium that accommodates thousands of fans for an event, then folds up and disappears. Impossible? Perhaps. But it's one of the visions that will appear in the upcoming Venice Architecture Biennale... It improbably envisions a baseball field inserted within the urban thicket of Chicago's Loop. The field would be surrounded by a series of movable seating tiers. The tiers, some of which would be constructed into surrounding buildings, would fold and unfold as needed. As outlandish as the idea seems, [the Chicago architectural firm] Studio Gang already has proved it is possible to design and construct a performance venue whose architectural identity changes to suit changing needs." Chicago Tribune 07/04/04

Is The Saatchi Empire Crumbling? Charles Saatchi has never exactly been a favorite with critics. The insanely rich collector has been panned for his lack of discriminating taste, excoriated for inflating prices all over the art world, and even criticized for the architecture of his new London gallery. But the myth of Saatchi, who was once viewed as a mysterious but powerful force in art, may have finally come crashing down in the aftermath of the fire which destroyed more than 100 works in his prized collection. The public reaction to the catastrophe was brutal, the loss "celebrated as a hilarious and deserved comeuppance for Saatchi and his bloated, overpraised, overpaid protegés." The Guardian (UK) 07/03/04

Venice Police Arrest Hammer Man A man has been arrested in Venice for damaging dozens of statues in the city with a hammer. "Antonio Benacchio, 38, an engineer living in the city, was detained when a priest became suspicious of his behaviour in a church on Monday. Because of his eccentric gestures, Mr Benacchio was already known to Venetians as the 'engineer who measures the air'." The Guardian (UK) 07/02/04

Bishop Museum Goes Native? Hawaii's Bishop Museum has "adopted a more activist role in contesting Native Hawaiian claims on cultural artifacts in its possession by asserting that it, too, qualifies as a 'Native Hawaiian organization' under federal law." The museum says "the move will place the museum on equal footing with other groups that seek to gain custody of cultural items and lays out its intention to defend its possession of most items. The museum's new stance is drawing fire from some in the Hawaiian community who say the policy defeats the intent of federal law enabling the return to native people of cultural treasures held by museums." Honolulu Advertiser 07/01/04

Stolen Paintings Seized In NY "Two paintings allegedly stolen from an Italian castle in the 1990s were seized after federal authorities learned that Christie's was putting the works on the auction block, officials said Thursday." Newsday (AP) 07/01/04

UN: Urbanization Threatens World's Cultural Heritage Unesco is considering 48 nominations for new designation as World Heritage sites. The UN body says that urban growth is the biggest threat to conservation of the world's important cultural heritage. "What is most important at the moment is the very, very big urban development... which in many cases is made without proper respect for historical sites." BBC 07/01/04

New Director For Montreal MOCA "The Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal announced Monday the appointment of 48-year-old, Sudbury-born anglo-francophone Marc Mayer as director, bringing an end to Marcel Brisebois's 19-year-long reign there." Mayer has been the deputy art director for the Brooklyn Museum since September 2001. The Globe & Mail (Canada) 07/01/04