Wildenstein Being Sued For Gauguin Appraisal Wildenstein, the art dealership, is being sued by a company claiming Mr. Wildenstein appraised a painting - Gauguin’s Paysage aux Trois Arbres, 1892 - at "millions of dollars above its value without revealing he had an 'ownership interest' in the piece." The Art Newspaper 08/31/06

The Louvre In Abu Dhabi? The Louvre is talking with the government of the United Arab Emirates about operating a museum in Abu Dhabi. "The talks followed the signing of a memorandum of understanding in July between the government of Abu Dhabi and the New York-based Guggenheim Foundation which sets out the terms for the establishment of a Guggenheim branch in Abu Dhabi." The Art Newspaper 08/31/06

How Do You Get Young People Into The Museum? Hire Musicians Tate Modern "may be the most popular in Europe but it remains concerned about its appeal to young people and those communities where gallery-going is not a frequent pastime. The gallery has asked artists as diverse as the hip hop singer Estelle, former Blur guitarist Graham Coxon and east end rap collective Roll Deep each to select a work in the museum and compose a piece in response." The Guardian (UK) 09/01/06

Police Recover The Scream Two Edvard Munch masterpieces stolen from a Norwegian museum two years ago have been recovered by police. "The Scream and Madonna were found in a police operation. "We are 100% certain they are the originals. The damage was much less than feared," police said. They had been missing since two armed men ripped them from the wall and threatened staff at the Munch Museum in the Norwegian capital in August 2004." BBC 08/31/06

MoMA: On Restoring Modern Masterpieces Another sign of the "aging" of the Museum of Modern Art's mission is the need to do some serious conservation of some of its important works. "The reason these things were never done before is that they've never come off the walls. And I think you have to make some choices here. It seems to me one has to accept the fact that it's important to do this and when they come back, they're going to be much better than when they left." CultureGrrl 08/31/06

Fire Damages Royal Academy A fire broke out in London's Royal Academy Wednesday. "The fire broke out yesterday at the former Museum of Mankind, now owned by the Royal Academy, in Piccadilly. Part of the roof and first floor was damaged, a London Fire Brigade spokesman said." The Independent (UK) 08/30/06

Concentration Camp Museum Won't Return Survivor's Paintings Dina Gottliebova Babbitt is a survivor of Auschwitz. While she was there she made watercolor paintings. The paintings are in the Auschwitz Museum, but the 83-year-old Gottliebova Babbitt wants them back. "The Auschwitz museum, which considers the watercolors to be its property, has argued that they are rare artifacts and important evidence of the Nazi genocide, part of the cultural heritage of the world." The New York Times 08/30/06

Protection Asked For Arctic Carvings Archaeologists are pressing for protection of rare ancient Arctic rock carvings after news they have been damaged. "The approximately 170 petroglyphs are mask-like images and animal shapes carved into a soapstone ridge on Qajartalik Island, one hour by boat from the village of Kangiqsujuaq." CBC 08/29/06

Museum Of Modern Art Takes (Economic) Stock "What is MoMA's value to society? It may seem a callous inquiry. Artists view MoMA as a priceless collection. But economists, being an unsentimental lot, frequently occupy themselves with such diversions. Indeed, MoMA itself entered the fray with a June study by the firm of Audience Research and Analysis claiming that from late-2004, when it reopened, through mid-2007, the museum's economic impact on the city will total $2 billion." OpinionJournal.com 08/30/06

Illuminating A "Trash-aesthetic Extravaganza"? "This autumn more than three million people will travel to Blackpool to see a work of art that is hardly ever mentioned in the metropolitan press. The Blackpool Illuminations attract many more visitors than the Edinburgh Festival. They have been up and running for far longer, too. So why do the broadsheets ignore this trash- aesthetic extravaganza? They don't know what they're missing. The Illuminations aren't just an excuse for a good piss-up: they also shine a light on Britain's light-entertainment past."

FBI Investigating Painter Thomas Kinkade "Former gallery owners said that after they had invested tens of thousands of dollars each or more, the company's practices and policies drove them out of business. They alleged they were stuck with unsalable limited-edition prints, forced to open additional stores in saturated markets and undercut by discounters that sold identical artworks at prices they were forbidden to match. Some also have accused Kinkade — touted as the most widely collected living U.S. artist — of scheming to devalue his public company, Media Arts Group Inc., before taking it private two years ago for $32.7 million as Thomas Kinkade Co." Los Angeles Times 08/29/06

Canadian Court Dings Sotheby's For Price Fixing "The order, obtained by Canada's Competition Bureau, directs Sotheby's to take measures to ensure it complies with existing rules. Sotheby's also must pay for the C$800,000 ($720,000) probe and is barred from 'doing any act or thing directed in the commission of an offence' forbidden by Canada's competition law." Bloomberg.com 08/28/06

Returned Nazi-looted Painting Causes Controversy The restitution last month of Ernst Ludwig Kirchner's 1913 painting 'Berlin Street Scene' to a descendant of the Jewish family who owned it before World War II has "sparked an indignant response from art experts and the regional parliamentary opposition. London-based Christie's International estimates the oil painting may fetch as much as $25 million at its Nov. 8 auction in New York." Bloomberg.com 08/28/06

Aaron Betsky To Lead Cincinnati Museum of Art "The 48-year-old, whose birthday was Monday, comes to the museum after six years as director of the Netherlands Architecture Institute, the world’s largest architectural museum. He’s a Montana native who was raised in the Netherlands after his parents, both college professors, received Fulbright Fellowships to travel there." Cincinnati Enquirer 08/28/06

Leonardo, Rediscovered? A conservationist believes he knows where one of Leonardo's greatest works is hidden. "But for three years he has been frustrated by wrangling in Florence. Now the election of a new government in Italy, where art is seldom apolitical, has given his search fresh impetus. Francesco Rutelli, the Deputy Prime Minister and Culture Minister, will soon appoint a committee to resolve the issue." The Guardian (UK) 08/28/06

Do The Stuckists Know Anything About Good Art? The Stuckists are sharp critics of what has been the main stream of contemporary art. "Opposed to conceptual art, anti-art and postmodernism, they also deride what they see as a cosy relationship between the elite of the art world, using their own works to launch satirical attacks on people who they believe to perpetuate the status quo. But is it art?" The Guardian (UK) 08/27/06

UK's Best Buildings This Year? Here's a gallery of contenstants for this year's Stirling Prize. The Guardian (UK) 08/26/06

Iraqi Cultural Leader Quits Iraq's top cultural official has resigned. "Donny George has resigned as President of the State Board of Antiquities and Heritage (SBAH) in Iraq, citing his frustration at lack of funding and at growing interference from the radical Shi’ite party now in control of the government ministry to which SBAH is attached." The Art Newspaper 08/25/06

Emin To Represent Uk At Venice Tracey Emin has been chosen to represent the UK in the next Venice Biennale. "She will be the second woman to produce a solo show for the UK at the Venice Biennale, following Rachel Whiteread in 1997. Andrea Rose, commissioner for the British Pavilion, said the exhibition would allow Emin's work to be viewed 'in an international context and at a distance from the YBA [Young British Artists] generation with which she came to prominence'." BBC 08/25/06

Architecture Prize Or Game Show Contest? There are six buildings competing for this year's Stirling Prize for architecture. "Today, the prize is as much a live TV show on the big night, staged against the backdrop of a black-tie dinner with wine and all the trimmings at a top celebrity venue, as it is a judgment on the state of contemporary British architecture." The Guardian (UK) 08/25/06

How Digital Prints Change Photography New digital prints of Walker Evans photographs raise some artistic issues. "A new detail revealed by an enlarged digital print becomes a visual fact that, however subtly, affects the balance of the entire picture. Photography is a seamless medium: a whole, continuous image put together at once, which the eye unconsciously distinguishes from a drawn image that is made inch by inch, or pixel by pixel, in the case of a digital image." The New York Times 08/25/06

The Zen Of Dada "As late as 1920, Marcel Duchamp said he didn't know what Dada was. The accounts of the original participants in Zurich are conflicting; there is even uncertainty about where the name came from. The most plausible version is that Ball and Huelsenbeck found the French word for 'hobbyhorse' accidentally in a French–German dictionary while looking for something else. Another possibility is that it came from the name of a popular hair-strengthening tonic. Whatever its origin, the word, which in several Slavic languages sounds like an emphatic declaration of agreement ("yes, yes"), quickly became as popular as a brand name: a one-word manifesto guaranteed either to amuse or to irritate." New York Review of Books 08/10/06

San Diego Musum Returns Painting To Mexico The San Diego Museum has returned a painting in its collection to Mexico. The painting, 'Expulsion From the Garden of Eden,' painted in 1728 by an unknown artist, was cut from a frame and stolen in 2000 from a church in San Juan Tepemasalco, in the Mexican state of Hidalgo. "Many questions remain unanswered as to how the painting ended up at the museum. No arrests have been made despite a two-year investigation into how the artwork was smuggled into the United States. San Diego Union-Tribune 08/24/06

Democratizing The Selling Of Art Artists ar taking to blogging to get the word out about their art. "In the process, artist/bloggers... are democratizing the art world, using the Internet to change the making and selling of art. Dealers and galleries, who command 50% commissions, no longer have exclusive control in defining who is emerging or successful. Now artists can sell directly to consumers, using blogs or auction sites at prices more affordable to would-be collectors. The result: More people are making a living as artists, more people are buying art, and more art is selling at a wider spectrum of prices." USAToday 08/23/06

Rebuilding The Tuileries There is a plan in Paris to rebuild the Tuileries Palace. "No one has seen this handsome pile since it was torched by the Communards in 1871. For the past century and more the name 'Tuileries' has brought to mind not a building but a garden. Now, the French government is considering a project to put it back on the original site, opposite the Louvre, at an estimated cost of 300 million euros ($383 million). If the plan -- which would be funded from private sources -- goes ahead, it will by no means be unique. To a surprising extent, the monuments of Europe are not original, but reproduction." Bloomberg.com 08/23/06

Toledo Museum - Minimal Glass The Toledo Museum of Art has a "remarkable new Glass Pavilion, the first American project by architects Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa and their Tokyo firm, SANAA... Whenever the design veers in the direction of severity or humorlessness, it's saved by its interest in shifting, shimmering visual effects — in exploring the full architectural spectrum from a transparent wall to one that's fully opaque. When you stand outside the pavilion and spot trees or people on the other side, you are looking through more than a dozen layers of glass, each of them reflecting the sunlight or the interior of the building or the trees in a different way." Los Angeles Times 08/23/06

American History In Space "The Smithsonian's National Museum of American History closes next month for almost two years of renovations, but some of the museum's most beloved artifacts -- Dorothy's ruby slippers, Kermit the Frog, 'Star Wars' droids -- will reappear in the fall. Beginning Nov. 17, 150 objects from the shuttered museum will be part of the "Treasures of American History" exhibition at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum." Washington Post 08/23/06

Oregon Art Museum Gets Director The Portland (Oregon) Art Museum has hired Brian Ferriso to be its new director. Ferriso is currently executive director and chief executive officer of the Philbrook Museum of Art in Tulsa. The Oregonian 08/23/06

Getty Sends Two Artifacts To Greece The Getty Museum agrees to return two disputed artifacts to Greece. "Under the deal signed Sunday, the Getty is returning a Boetian stele that dates to the 4th century BC and a Thasian relief that is about 100 years older. The Getty bought the stele through a New York dealer in 1993, museum director Michael Brand said, and the relief was bought by J. Paul Getty himself in 1955." Los Angeles Times 08/23/06

Libeskind - Conquering Denver? Since his World Trade Center tower project fell apart, architect Daniel Libeskind has move on. To Denver. "In giving Libeskind the freedom denied him in New York, Denver is taking a risk: Does Libeskind have the ability to design a building that will exert the magnetic pull of an icon and still work well as a museum? And can he set out a plan for an entire neighborhood, as he tried to do in New York?" The New Yorker 08/21/06

Art Thief Caught After Pub Boast A thief who had stolen art from a museum was caught when he was heard boadting about it in a pub. "He took the canvas, called Brighton, when it was in storage in 1999 during redevelopment of the Castle Museum and Art Gallery in Norwich. But he was heard in a Norwich pub discussing how he could get rid of the piece and the eavesdropper reported him to police." The Guardian (UK) 08/23/06

Wanted: A Different Kind Of Museum "Whether it's people of color, young children, people of faith, or other affinity groups, they usually come once for the exhibition that speaks directly to them and then they leave. This experience suggests that the concept of the encyclopedic mega-museum as the best repository for all masterpieces of all cultures is, at best, debatable. The lesson of the Musée Quai Branly in Paris is that we also need smaller "niche" museums that appeal to particular cultural constituencies---those who often feel marginalized in, or intimidated by, the grand art palaces where the great masterpieces of Western European and/or American art usually have pride of place." CultureGrrl (AJBlogs) 08/22/06

World Trade Center Museum Finding Its Way "The small staff of the World Trade Center Memorial Museum faces a few challenges as it prepares to commemorate the fifth anniversary of the terror attacks of September 11, 2001. The museum has no gallery space and little storage area. It has barely even started collecting. Still, it has a public mission to help Americans remember. 'We have this conundrum — we are not a museum yet, but we have to start acting like one,' the chief curator, Jan Ramirez, said." So, "this week, the museum will open its first exhibition: a series of largescale photographs that will be installed on the chain-link fence on east side of the World Trade Center site." New York Sun 08/22/06

When Architecture Is Bridled By Anxiety "To appreciate how America has changed since 9/11, walk slowly through any major city. What you'll see dotting the landscape is the physical embodiment of fear. Security installations put up after the attacks continue to block public access and wrangle pedestrian traffic. ... It's not just the barriers, it's also the buildings. Since 9/11, risk consultants working for police departments, federal agencies and insurance companies have wrested control over many new construction plans. 'There's a sense that security experts are acting as the associate architects on every project built today,' says Paul Goldberger, the architecture critic of the New Yorker." Salon 08/22/06

Here's $2,500. Now May We Have The Horse? The Smithsonian Institution is willing to lend smaller museums its objects, and its prestige, for a price. "In exchange for a $2,500 annual fee, museums may become Smithsonian 'affiliates' and borrow artifacts. Some are less important items. Some are icons. Some go out on a short-term basis. Some, long-term. Now 146 museums and cultural organizations are part of the program, called Smithsonian Affiliations. The latest is the International Museum of the Horse in Lexington, Ky., which has its eye on a famous stuffed steed from the Civil War." Washington Post 08/22/06

Pushkin Museum, Expanding, Puts Stars Center Stage "The State Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, the Russian capital’s premier repository of Impressionist and post-Impressionist works, has opened the Gallery of Art of the Countries of Europe and America of the 19th-20th Centuries, devoted to the best of its collections from those periods. The expansion nearly doubles the display space for 19th- and 20th-century art, said Irina Antonova, the museum’s director. Monet, Cézanne, Gauguin, Matisse and Picasso all have separate halls.... It is all part of a goal to create a 'museum town' in the heart of Moscow...." The New York Times 08/22/06

Tomb Robbing No More, An Artist Imitates What He Once Stole In Italy, a former tomb robber, jailed briefly long ago for selling his own authentic-seeming copies of Etruscan art as originals, "has transformed a mushroom farm that was once an ancient quarry into Etruscopolis, a quirky museum celebrating the art of a civilization that flourished in roughly the eighth to second centuries B.C." The New York Times 08/22/06

The Mystery Picasso Buyer Last May a mystery buyer bought Picasso's Dora Maar for $95 million. The buyer is still a mystery. "Why did the Sotheby’s buyer want his Dora Maar so badly? Perhaps connoisseurship. Perhaps to impress his friends. But it could also have been an investment, even at such a high price." New York Magazine 08/21/06

A Runaway Art Market The sizzling art market only gets hotter. "Sotheby’s, which opened an office in Moscow a few weeks ago, has notched up, in the first six months of this year, sales of just under £60 million. This is an enormous amount considering that the company’s sales of Russian art for the whole of 2000 reached just £4 million." The Times (UK) 08/21/06

Why Architecture Counts On Sunny Days "In Britain this summer, the weather could hardly have been more restlessly alive; a parched and blazing July has been followed by a brooding and tempestuous August. Most of us believe our climate is likely to take even more ominous turns in the future. Why, then, the increasing architectural pretence that weather is all but irrelevant, and, by implication, undesirable?" The Guardian (UK) 08/21/06

Controversial Paris Museum A Hit With The Public Paris' new Musee Branly has been much-maligned by critics, but it's a hit with the public. "Even as debate continues over the museum’s novel architecture and exhibition design, word is getting out in immigrant communities throughout France that the space celebrates the patrimonies of their cultures as art. And so far, people who typically might not set foot in a museum are coming in unexpectedly large numbers." The New York Times 08/21/06

Claim: Australian Museum's Painting Might Have Been Nazi Loot "A Chilean man has claimed a 17th century art work on display at the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) may have been looted from his grandfather by Nazis." Sydney Morning Herald 08/21/06

Rumors Of A Long Lost Leonardo "The Battle of Anghiari is the real Holy Grail of Leonardo studies: a wonderful lost object for which the search continues today. Its rediscovery would be an art-historical sensation. War was the stuff of everyday life in early 16th-century Italy, and Leonardo had plenty of opportunity to observe it: he described armed conflict as 'the most beastly madness'." The Telegraph (UK) 08/20/06

Tijuana Builds An Art Culture "While a flourishing of the visual arts has brought Tijuana a growing reputation in recent years, many of these artists struggle financially. Commercial art galleries have stepped in to fill the void, working to sell their work at home and abroad." San Diego Union-Tribune 08/20/06

Rembrandt Reconsidered (400 Years Later) "As Rembrandt’s 400th birthday is celebrated this year with blockbuster exhibitions, symposia, festivals, tours, and performances, and as museums the world over lucky enough to own his works set them forth with pride, it seems unthinkable that the man we consider one of the supreme geniuses of world art was dismissed so contemptuously in his own time. But Breughel was only repeating what critics and theorists had been saying about Rembrandt’s art for years." ARTnews 08/06

That'll Buy A Lot Of Shrubs You know your museum project is going well when you haul in a $5 million gift just for landscaping. "A trustee of the Denver Art Museum [has] donated $5 million for landscaping around the institution's soon-to-open $90.5 million addition... The new civic and cultural space, which, like the addition, was designed by architect Daniel Libeskind, links the Golden Triangle and Civic Center and provides a gathering point for visitors to the cultural complex." Denver Post 08/18/06

Beirut Peace Garden Delayed A garden being constructed in Beirut and meant to symbolize peace has been put on hold because of the war. "The 3.5-acre pit zigzags between three churches and three mosques in central Beirut. It had been in the process of becoming Hadiqat As-Samah: the Garden of Forgiveness. It might now be seen as the landscape of a shattered ideal." Bloomberg.com 08/17/06

New Leadership For Chicago Museum Chicago's oft-overlooked Jane Addams Hull-House Museum has a new director. "[Lisa Yun] Lee, a native of Poughkeepsie, N.Y., is known to many Chicagoans for her philanthropy... and for founding, with two friends, The Public Square. That organization sponsors debates and dialogues on cultural and political issues, especially social justice." Chicago Tribune 08/17/06

Is Technologically Assisted Art Really Art At All? Digital photography has been a revelation for those who make their living with a camera. But has technology stripped the art out of the medium? "The advantages of digital are plain enough: easier storage, the ability to upload photos straight to the computer, no need for film, being able to take a mulligan on images you don't want to keep and, if results are all you require, no need for screwing around in a darkroom. But for 'making photographs'? For making art? No. It's like 'painting' a picture using your computer. It's kind of fun to do and what you have when you're done may be superficially terrific, but unless you've actually applied brush to canvas you're no artist. You are merely a technician with a good eye." Wired 08/17/06

Irrational Exuberance? (That Is An Expensive Klimt) Gustav Klimt is important historically, writes Mario Naves. "But in the greater scheme of things, Klimt is small potatoes. Forget Modernism: If $135 million is considered a commendable investment for a picture by a minor artist, what price tag do we put on a painting by Fra Angelico, a sculpture by Donatello or a drawing by Durer? The question is undoubtedly lodged in the overexcited minds of museums, collectors and auction houses the world over." New York Observer 08/16/06

2,500-Year-Old Chinese Warriors Found Two 2,500-year-old terra cotta warriors have been discovered, and archaeologists believe they may be predecessors of the army buried with China's first emperor. "The four-inch-tall figurines were made in Qin, China's most powerful state, before its ruler unified China in 221 BC, state media reported. They were found in the north-western province of Shaanxi in the ruins of a workshop." The Guardian (UK) 08/17/06

How A Historic Painting Emerged From £50 Fake "A painting of Mary Queen of Scots, one of only two thought to have been made in her lifetime, has been discovered - in the National Portrait Gallery's very own store. The portrait was bought for £50 by the gallery in 1916 at Christie's. But later it was written off as an 18th century fake and was left to gather dust." The Guardian (UK) 08/17/06

Tennessee College Tries To Sell Donated Art Fisk University is trying to sell art it owns in order to raise money. "The Nashville school is awaiting a court ruling on whether it can sell a Georgia O'Keeffe painting and a Marsden Hartley painting, both part of the 101-piece collection, which was donated to the historically black college nearly 60 years ago by Stieglitz's widow -- O'Keeffe herself. The collection also includes works by such artists as Cézanne, Renoir, Picasso, Arthur Dove and John Marin, as well as some of Stieglitz's photography. According to an IRS filing, Fisk's entire art collection was appraised at $31.4 million in 2002." Washington Post 08/16/06

Russian Museums Decry "Witch Hunt" After Hermitage Thefts Are Russian authorities using the recent thefts at the Hermitage Museum as a way to purge museums? "The Union of Museums of Russia protested what it described as an attempt to use the thefts of 221 objects from the St. Petersburg institution to push the government to privatize national museums." Los Angeles Times (AP) 08/16/06

Tardy Denver Museum Loses Out On Funding Denver's Museum of Contemporary Art has lost out on money from the city's major funder. "After receiving the museum's audit on June 8 - two days late - the district's board decided to remove the museum from it's Tier II category of funding." Rocky Mountain News 08/15/06

In New York, Expert Eyes Peeled For Stolen Art "New York is often the destination for art that is silently whisked from museums and personal collections, but as the center of the art world, the city has more than its share of cautious eyes watching for suspicious sales, missing links, and unusually rare offerings for relatively inexpensive prices. With the disclosures in the past week that hundreds of pieces of art have been stolen from two prominent Russian museums, New Yorkers in the art business and the law enforcement officials who investigate art crime have been watching to see if any of the pieces make their way through this major throughway for the multibillion-dollar art industry." New York Sun 08/15/06

Met Opera Opening An Art Gallery "The gallery, designed by the Manhattan architect Lindy Roy, is named Gallery Met; it is financed by a $1 million donation from Marie Schwartz, a Met board member. It will be open whenever the opera house or the box office is, and through the end of every performance. Nothing is for sale. When the works come down in May, at the end of the opera season, they are to be returned to the artists." The New York Times 08/15/06

A Talk With New Barnes Boss Derek Gillman How would Dr. Barnes have reacted to moving the Barnes Collection? "When he wrote the original indenture with [John] Dewey, it was optimistic and big-pictured and optimistic about American society and making the collection accessible. The Barnes who died prematurely would indeed [rotate in his grave], I'm sure… It's evident from the indenture that he left that he wanted the limited access, the investment of funds in low-yield government bonds and so on… But that's not the Barnes that I think we need to go back to, [I prefer] the Barnes who had this wonderful vision for this wonderful collection who was dedicated to improving America." Modern Art Notes (AJBlogs) 08/14/06

Claim: Late Hermitage Curator Stole Art To Buy Insulin The curator who died as a theft scandal was coming to light at the Hermitage Museum sold art to buy insulin, says her husband. "The husband admitted he and his wife had taken 53 objects since the early 1990s. Another person was arrested a few days later. Zavadskaya's husband said they needed the cash to buy insulin for his wife, whose meager salary of $125 a month could not cover her medical needs. The family lived in a dilapidated apartment in the historic centre of the city." CBC 08/13/06

Getty Gets Gritty The Getty Museum in Los Angeles has unveiled a series of intentionally provocative billboards designed to reposition the institution as an edgy, sensational "place where art lives" — not some oppressively quiet, stodgy museum space." And before anyone gets snarky, no, none of the billboards make mention of crooked executives or indicted curators. Los Angeles Times 08/13/06

Roadside Art Meets The Art Of Dissent "For the past quarter-century, Ron English has been waging a quixotic guerilla war against corporate America by hijacking some of its most visually arresting billboards... These sabotage operations can be carried out in about seven minutes flat if all goes well, and even though the hijacked billboards generally get de-hijacked within a matter of days, the raids usually generate enough publicity to get his message across." English is the subject of a new documentary examining the impact of his guerrilla art on a frequently indifferent society. The Guardian (UK) 08/12/06

Architect Problems in Cleveland The Cleveland Museum of Natural History is well on the way to raising the money it needs for an ambitious expansion and renovation, and museum officials have spent the last several years selling local residents and civic leaders on the necessity of such a project. There's just one problem: "The architect selection process, which the museum hopes to complete by Oct. 31, doesn't match the sophistication of the institution itself." The Plain Dealer (Cleveland) 08/12/06

Hermitage Mastermind May Be In Custody "Russian police have detained a man they believe may have organized the theft of artifacts from the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, according to news reports on Friday. The suspect is the fourth person detained since Russia's famous museum announced on July 31 the theft of 221 items worth over $5 million." CBC Arts 08/11/06

Getty Finance Chief Quits Abruptly The chief financial officer at the beleaguered J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles has stepped down without explanation. "His departure, effective Aug. 23, follows several other resignations among top officials, including Getty Trust President Barry Munitz in February and board Chairman John Biggs earlier this month. The Getty has been the focus of a state attorney general's investigation since last summer, with results expected in coming weeks." Los Angeles Times 08/12/06

Canadian Gallery Still Waiting For Government To Notice It The Mendel Art Gallery in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, has some big expansion plans, and is chomping at the bit to get started. "Two years ago, the city-owned gallery marked 40 years as the anchor in Saskatoon's cultural life by unveiling plans to renovate its building on the banks of the South Saskatchewan River... Alas, the bulldozers are on hold until next year at least, possibly later — the result of a lack of financial assistance from [provincial and federal government sources.]" The Globe & Mail (Canada) 08/11/06

Calatrava Tower Reportedly Still On Track When an Irish developer stepped in to buy a large plot of land in Chicago recently, it started a whirlwind of rumors as to whether the developer intended to use the land to build something other than the 2000-foot Santiago Calatrava-designed skyscraper that had long been intended for the spot. The developer is reassuring the city that he plans to begin negotiations with Calatrava shortly on what would be the world's tallest tower. Some skeptics "contend that the $1.2 billion project is economically unfeasible." Chicago Tribune 08/11/06

Thinking Big, But Winding Up At The Same Boring Place When the Arizona Cardinals of the National Football League set out to build their new stadium, they went outside the usual parameters, hiring former "bad boy" architect Peter Eisenmann to take charge of the design and create a modern structure unlike anything else in the NFL. But somewhere between concept and execution, much of Eisenmann's personality got lost amid the budget constraints. "The typical stadium designer today is a corporate servant who churns out formulaic structures, either crudely serviceable or slathered in nostalgic references to the Roman Colosseum. By contrast, Eisenman is an architect who sometimes gets trapped in his own head: he is known for conceptual references that, while playful, can border on the impenetrable." The New York Times 08/10/06

If You Can't Beat 'Em, Become Their Boss "One of Britain's most outspoken architects has emerged as a frontrunner to become London's 'design tsar' promising more landmark buildings and attacking the current lack of 'coherent vision'. Will Alsop, whose series of controversial buildings and city plans earned him the nickname of Mr Blobby because of his passion for curved forms, buildings on stilts and bright colours, has applied to become director of design for London. The move is widely viewed as a challenge to an establishment of which he has become increasingly critical." The Guardian (UK) 08/11/06

Russia To Undertake Long Overdue Art Audit "Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered a nationwide inventory of cultural treasures after valuable works were stolen from the Hermitage Museum... Art experts say Russian museums, galleries and archives have been suffering from lax security, poor record-keeping and lack of funding for years." BBC 08/10/06

Probable Hitler Works Go On The Block To look at them, the pictures wouldn't seem to be worth much. "But next month the salesroom at Jefferys, a modest auction house in Lostwithiel in Cornwall, is expected to be buzzing with collectors from all over the world bidding for the sketches. They will be interested not in the aesthetic value of the pictures but in the signature, sometimes AH, sometimes A Hitler. The watercolours are - probably - the work of the young Adolf Hitler, painted while he served on the border of France and Belgium as a corporal during the first world war." The Guardian (UK) 08/10/06

When Grand Dreams Don't Make Great Buildings From New York's Freedom Tower to Philadelphia's Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, Witold Rybczynski ponders why important buildings so often fail to live up to their promise. Noting that "for every successful icon there are scores of failures," he asks, "What do you do when your starchitect doesn't deliver the goods?" Slate 08/09/06

Will Skills Of Barnes' New Leader Attract The Needed Millions? With Derek Gillman plucked from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts to become executive director and president of the Barnes Foundation, Edward J. Sozanski wonders how the new leader will handle a project that "promises to be several orders of magnitude more demanding than anything Gillman has tackled so far." His primary task? Raising "the several hundred million dollars the foundation needs to underwrite a radical transformation from school and domestically scaled gallery to international tourist attraction" as the collection is relocated to Philadelphia. Philadelphia Inquirer 08/10/06

Tattoos A Hidden Mark Of Hipness In Iran "It's an undercover movement--literally: Tattoos have become a fad among many young Iranian women who proudly display them in private but must keep them under wraps from authorities." Chicago Tribune (AP) 08/10/06

If Huck Finn Had Had A Few Dozen Artist Friends ... "If all goes as planned, and that is no sure bet, an unlikely crew on an improbable craft will amble the Mississippi for the next month, spreading culture and chaos downriver. For more than a week, the 'Miss Rockaway Armada' — a few dozen self-selected artists from Manhattan, Brooklyn, Seattle, San Francisco and beyond — has toiled ... on the banks of the Mississippi River, assembling salvage wood and cadged Styrofoam into three interconnected rafts, each 20 feet long. ... Theoretically, the crew plans to stop in various river towns to give workshops on everything from silkscreening to power tools and put on a performance — a kind of punk-rock musical variety show — followed by a dance party." The New York Times 08/09/06

Freed's Air Force Memorial Takes Shape "From a promontory high above the Pentagon, three arching spires reach skyward, their elongated tips pointing to the infinity of space. They appear as abstract art forms but only until their symbolism is made clear by their setting: They are the starring elements of a memorial to the United States Air Force, the only branch of the American military that has not had a prominent monument in the Washington area. More than 14 years in planning, the memorial is in the final stages of construction and will be dedicated Oct. 14." The New York Times 08/10/06

Museum Guidelines Safeguard "Sacred" Cultural Objects "As American Indian and other groups have become increasingly assertive about guarding their cultural heritage, museums have struggled to strike a balance between the traditional practice of collecting indigenous objects as art and the often competing interests of the people whose ancestors produced them. ... In guidelines be released today, the Association of Art Museum Directors calls on museums to consult with indigenous groups to determine what works might fall into this category and to accommodate the wishes of these groups as far as possible in displaying, conserving and even discussing these works on museum labels and in catalogs." The New York Times 08/10/06

A Place For Islamic Art "Since 9/11, many museums in Europe and the United States have begun highlighting collections and exhibitions of Islamic art as a way of promoting greater understanding and bridging the cultural gap between the Judeo-Christian and Muslim worlds. In Western Europe this strategy also implies recognition that, because of heavy immigration from North Africa, Turkey, Pakistan and Bangladesh, Islam is now also a European religion, and it is therefore important both for Europeans to show respect for Islamic culture and for Muslim immigrants and their children to take pride in their past. But are we asking too much of art, giving it too much political weight?" The New York Times 08/09/06

Another Russian Art Theft There's been another museum theft in Russia. This time it's an archive of a famous architect's work worth millions of dollars and stolen from a state archive. "The crime, blamed by the archive's director on unscrupulous staff, came just more than a week after Russia's most famous museum — the Hermitage — announced the theft over a period of years of more than 220 artworks valued at $5 million." Los Angeles Times (AP) 08/09/06

Is The Web The Future Of Art? "This awesome information technology that we are rapidly taking for granted is an arena that is apparently attracting artists who want to push the boundaries of what art can be. I thought the boundaries in art had all been crossed in the Sixties, or was it a century ago? Maybe I was wrong." The Times (UK) 08/08/06

Wondering About Pollock In The Hamptons The art event of the summer in the Hamptons was to be a show of Jackson Pollocks. But a distpute over their authenticity led to cancellation of the show. So... who really created the made these drip paintings? OpinionJournal.com 08/09/06

Taxidermy Enjoys A New Chic "For generations, the art of preserving dead creatures has been considered at worst barbaric and at best a relic of 19th-century colonialism. Now, however, a new breed of artists and collectors are discovering taxidermy. A manky hoof or a moth-eaten fox head that once adorned your granny's spare room is probably propped on the wall of an expensive restaurant. A new shop selling taxidermy is opening next year in London's achingly fashionable Shoreditch. Kate Moss has just spent several thousand pounds on a piece of taxidermy sculpture - a dead bluetit on a prayer book - by the east London-based artist Polly Morgan." The Guardian (UK) 08/08/06

Is The Pompidou Accident-Prone? "Since its opening in 1977, the Pompidou Center's Musée National d'Art Moderne has been counted among the world's most admired and most visible museums of contemporary art, beginning with its startling Paris building, its outside walls industrially festooned with ducts and fixtures. But in some circles, the institution has also acquired a reputation as a place where bad things sometimes happen to borrowed art." Los Angeles Times 08/07/06

Sotheby's On The Fast Track Sotheby's CEO William Ruprecht is riding high times at the auction company. "Will we have the top lot of the season? Who knows? In the first six months, we grew about twice as fast as Christie's. But we're not in a race with Christie's. We're not in the same game. We focus on the high end, not on the mass market. We don't sell Star Trek memorabilia as a major part of our effort. We don't do online sales. We brought that to the art market five years ago, and we ditched it. Guess why." Bloomberg.com 08/07/06

Saskatoon's Next Year Gallery Saskatoon's Mendel Gallery has had ambitious plans for an expansion. It deserves to grow. But funding for the project seems always ready to come... next year. The Globe & Mail (Canada) 08/07/06

Russians Examine Museum Security Russian authorities are scrutinizing security at the Hermitage Museum after recent thefts. "As authorities announce the return of some of the Hermitage items, attention is turning to the glaring lack of control at Russian museums since the 1991 Soviet collapse. Security and inventory systems are antiquated, with curators often keeping records by hand in notebooks." CBC 08/07/06

Returned Klimts To Be Sold By Christie's Four of five Gustav Klimt paintings returned by Austria to a Los Angeles woman earlier this year, will be sold at Christie's this fall. "Experts say the four paintings — three landscapes and a portrait executed between 1903 and 1916 — are worth about $100 million." The New York Times 08/07/06

Arrests In Hermitage Theft Two suspects have been arrested in the theft of 221 artifacts from the Hermitage Museum. "The authorities in Moscow and St. Petersburg declined to discuss the investigation, saying it was still under way. But the Interfax news agency cited an unidentified official close to the investigation as saying the case had been effectively solved. It said the fate of about 70 of the works, including where they had been sold, had been established, although it was not clear whether any of the items had since been found." The New York Times 08/06/06

Van Gogh A Fake? Experts are disputing the autheticity of a painting attributed to Van Gogh. "The work, known as either Portrait of a Man or Head of a Man, is said to have been painted by Van Gogh in Paris in the winter of 1886. It is on loan from the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) in Melbourne, Australia, for an exhibition in Scotland." Sunday Times (UK) 08/06/06

• Aussies Deny That Its Van Gogh Is Fake Australia's National gallery of Victoria is disputing claims that a prize Van Gogh it owns is a fake. "The painting is not mentioned in any of the artist's letters. It was painted on canvas and mounted on a panel, also unusual for Van Gogh." The Age (Melbourne) 08/06/06

Another Hermitage Artifact Is Recovered Asecond artifact on the Hermitage Museum's list of missing art has turned up. "A 19th-century chalice was turned in by a Moscow dealer, who said he had discovered it among his collection after the venerable museum went public Monday about the theft of its artifacts." BBC 08/04/06

At The Guggenheim - Paid To Talk Up The Art That visitor at the Guggenheim is no ordinary patron. He's been hired to be there. "Although all of New York’s major museums have educational programs, only the Guggenheim hires people to mingle full time in the galleries, interacting with museum patrons in all their quirky diversity." The New York Times 08/06/06

Arthur Erickson - Architecture As Exercise Arthur Erickson is Canada's top architect. Greatness has eluded him, but why? "Erickson remains strangely disengaged from architecture as anything more than an exercise in aesthetics. In an age as ugly and coarse as ours, one is loathe to complain about an architect whose main preoccupation is beauty, yet even the most diehard connoisseur of buildings must admit they have a broader function, a larger social responsibility. The best buildings — and the most beautiful — transcend themselves in a way that Erickson's rarely do." Toronto Star 08/06/06

Artist Sues Over Destruction Of His Mural Artist Kent Twitchell has filed lawsuits over the destruction of his large-scale mural "Ed Ruscha Monument" that was painted over in June. The defendants, "the suit contends 'willfully and intentionally desecrated, distorted, mutilated and otherwise modified' the work. Twitchell has said he received no notice — as required by law — that the artwork, on a downtown building owned by the federal government, would be painted over." Los Angeles Times 08/06/06

Inside Chihuly Inc. Glass artist Dale Chihuly has built an empire that nets tens of millions of dollars a year in sales. Has the artist become a factory removed from the art? Seattle Times 08/06/06

• Chihuly Lawsuit Not Settled After All A lawsuit brought by glass artist Dale Chihuly against a former employee has not been settled, contrary to what the artist claimed last week. "On Friday, Chihuly's studio manager Billy O'Neill and publicist Janet Makela said that they initially thought the suit was settled, but discovered they were 'misinformed' by their attorney about the resolution of Chihuly's suit against glass blower Rubino." Seattle Post-Intelligencer 08/05/06

Printing Philadelphia "A consortium of Philadelphia print curators and artists will launch a city-wide international festival of printmaking in 2010. Fashioned as the Documenta of the print world, the quadrennial Philagrafika will take place at museums, arts organisations, galleries and alternative spaces throughout the city." The Art Newspaper 07/27/06

Prado Won't Get Giddy Over Expansion “It would be an error to concentrate on organising events to the detriment of the permanent collection just because we have new spaces. There are several museums that are exhausted because they have invested all their energies in realising a programme of temporary exhibitions. We will only organise exhibitions if they are necessary." The Art Newspaper 07/27/06

Chihuly Settles Lawsuit Over Copyright Glass artist Dale Chihuly has settled his lawsuit with a former employee whom Chihuly claimed was infringing on the artist's copyright. "If I had to do it again, I probably wouldn't. I'm not the kind of person who wants to sue somebody, and yet I did. I got kind of fed up. For some reason, some people don't think it's illegal to copy someone else's work. Maybe this suit clarified the point." Seattle Post-Intelligencer 08/04/06

Boston ICA Has To Delay Opening Of New Home Boston's Institute of Contemporary Art says it has to delay next month's opening of its new $51 million home on the Boston waterfront. "The decision has the ICA scrambling to reschedule programs, exhibitions, and parties once set to kick off Sept. 10. ICA officials would not give a new date for the opening, but said the delay would last weeks, not months." Boston Globe 08/04/06

Anonymous Call Leads To Return Of Hermitage Art Earlier this week the Hermitage Museum released a list of 221 works it said were stolen from storage. Thursday, an anonymous caller told police where one of the items was - a religious icon was stashed in a trash bin, according to local police. CBC 08/03/06

Ron Mueck: Artist Or Hoaxer? "Ron Mueck is supposedly having an exhibition at this year's Edinburgh festival. I say supposedly because I'm not convinced the artist actually exists. Perhaps a clever novelist made up Mueck just to expose the tastelessness and stupidity of our time?" The Guardian (UK) 08/03/06

Guard Dog Rampages, Elvis's Teddy A Casualty "When Barney met Mabel, there was an instant - and fatal - chemical reaction. On Tuesday night the doberman pinscher guard dog, after six years' blameless service, went berserk: within minutes Mabel, a 1909 German-made Steiff teddy bear once owned by Elvis Presley, more recently the pride and joy of an English aristocrat, lay mortally wounded. Barney went on to rampage through hundreds of rare teddies, all on loan to Wookey Hole Caves in Somerset, and so valuable that the insurers had insisted on a guard dog to protect the premises at night." The Guardian (UK) 08/03/06

Philly Art Commission Knocks Rocky Back Down It looked like Rocky was on his way back to the Philadelphia Museum of Art, but that may have been a pipe dream. Recently, "the half-ton bronze Rocky Balboa - a prop made for Sylvester Stallone's 1982 movie 'Rocky III'" made it partway through the approval process. "A dedication of the new site was tentatively scheduled for Sept. 8. Stallone ... was ecstatic. But the city Art Commission yesterday threw a bucket of cold water in the face of the whole giddy affair." Philadelphia Inquirer 08/03/06

Two L.A. Artworks Destroyed In Pompidou Show "The world-renowned Pompidou Center of Paris, which set out in March to celebrate the work of Los Angeles artists, has accidentally destroyed two of their works — which fell from museum walls. A third piece was slightly damaged. The incidents, all of which occurred during the March-to-July run of 'Los Angeles 1955-1985,' have experts wondering whether a major museum has ever done so much damage in the course of a single show." Los Angeles Times 08/03/06

In Seattle: Making Mountains Of Regrades One of Seattle's great urban projects was to flatten one of its many hills to create an urban landscape. Now an artist wants to recreate a portion of the hill in a city park. How high would the replacement hill be? About 60 feet... Seattle Post-Intelligencer 08/02/06

Sleek, Prefab Housing: Not As Promising As It Looks? "The last thing the fledgling prefab movement needs at this point is aggressive marketing or more hype. What it needs is a reality check," Christopher Hawthorne argues. New, high-design, supposedly accessibly priced prefab housing is wildly popular in theory, but in reality it's been little tested beyond homes built for architects. "That's allowed the houses' creators to remain coy about cost overruns and other obstacles they've encountered as they try to work out the kinks of prefab construction. Meanwhile, the prices prefab architects quote to buyers have been climbing." Los Angeles Times 08/02/06

L.A. And Getty Agree On Mural's Restoration "After decades of fits and starts in the bid to preserve a politically provocative Siqueiros mural on an Olvera Street building, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and leaders at the J. Paul Getty Trust say they've made a $7.8-million deal to split the cost of making the 1932 work accessible to the public at last." Mexican artist David Alfaro Siqueiros' "America Tropical," depicting "a crucified Indian peasant under an American eagle," was covered in the 1930s. Los Angeles Times 08/02/06

Hermitage Theft May Be An Inside Job, Or Just Carelessness The precious trinkets lifted from St. Petersburg's Hermitage Museum sometime this summer may have been purloined by staff members, museum officials say. "The items had not been insured because they were in storage; only exhibited artworks at the Hermitage are insured. Prosecutors have opened a criminal case but police say there remains a possibility the items, dating from the 15th to 18th centuries, had gone missing internally as a result of the museum's chaotic catologuing, and might yet be recovered." The Guardian (UK) 08/02/06

Paddington Station Spared From The Wrecking Ball London's historic rail station at Paddington has gotten a reprieve from the train company that planned to demolish it to make way for an office development. "The proposed demolition... had approval from Westminster council and English Heritage, but was fought passionately by architectural historians. If it had gone ahead it would have been the most extensive destruction of a Grade I structure" since historical listing of buildings began in the UK. The Guardian (UK) 08/02/06

Russia's Hermitage Museum Robbed "Thieves have stolen more than 200 items - with an estimated value of $5m - from Russia's prestigious Hermitage art museum in St Petersburg." Most of the stolen goods are thought to be jewelry and other enameled objects, and the theft was discovered after museum officials performed a routine check of their inventory over the weekend. BBC 08/01/06

Laguna Beach Revives The 'Living Painting' "Is the tableau vivant passé? Not for the 155,000 fans who flock to this beachside town each summer for the pageant. For them, the two-month extravaganza — a $4.1 million production that includes sets and lighting for nearly 40 art pieces on eight staging areas with live narration and orchestra — weaves a magic that is a welcome palliative to the freneticism of modern-day entertainment... The pageant sells out all of its 61 shows and generates about $1.8 million for local arts programs, exhibitions and scholarships." The New York Times 08/01/06

Mapplethorpe Redux Robert Mapplethorpe is best remembered for photos that were calculated to shock: who can forget the famous bullwhip photo? But there was so much more to Mapplethorpe's work, and a new exhibit in the UK aims to highlight the softer side of the controversial photographer. "He helped create a look as well as commenting on it. Or perhaps it wasn't so much a look as an atmosphere: cool, dark, edgy, dangerously sexy, horrifically hip, hard and brittle." The Guardian (UK) 08/01/06