The High Cost Of Keeping Your Recently-Returned Stolen Art All well and good for people to suggest Maria Altmann ought to have hung on to the Klimt paintings that were stolen from her ancestors by Nazis and recently returned. But "what if Ms. Altmann had decided to hold on to her Klimts? Once Nazi-looted art is restored to its rightful owners, the bills start coming in. Lawyers in some restitution cases may work pro bono, but their costs cannot be waived, and these can quickly pile up." OpinionJournal 09/29/06

Can Ron Lauder Buy A Great Museum With One Painting? "With "Adele," Lauder and the Neue Galerie are making a grand gamble: Can a splashy, nearly unimaginable art acquisition turn an obscure museum into a must-see destination? Can a single painting - even a $135 million one - lift a museum to prominence?" Fortune 09/26/06

Fear: New Tax Law On Gifts Might Halt Flow Of Art To Museums "Instead of collectors thinking of museums as one of the first places to put their art, they'll be more willing to hang on to it and probably put it back on the market, so it'll probably never end up in a museum." MPR 09/28/06

Boston's MFA Returns 13 Objects To Italy "We’re committed to seeing the end of illegal excavations and the illicit trade in archaeological works of art. This is a new era of legality. That’s why it’s very important to see the objects here in Rome." The New York Times 09/29/06

• Boston Museum Returns Art To Italy "Obviously, everybody regrets to say goodbye to something from their collections, but the theme to our meetings was to find out what was the right place for the objects. Both sides were looking for the truth." Boston Globe 09/29/06

ArtWorld Comes To Leipzig Germany's Leipzig Art Academy has become an artworld Mecca. "Academic art used to mean staid and stuffy. Now it means hot and hip, at least when it comes to works by graduates from the Academy." Christian Science Monitor 09/29/06

Abu Ghraib Art? (No Takers) "Colombian artist Fernando Botero is offering some 80 paintings and drawings portraying the abuse of Iraqi prisoners by US soldiers at Abu Ghraib prison to any suitable museum willing to display them." So far... no takers. The Art Newspaper 09/28/06

NY City Museum To Expand (And They Mean It This Time) The Museum of the City of New York is finally ready to break ground on an expansion that it first unveiled nearly two decades ago. "The new wing tries to project a more inviting and inclusive identity for what is a city landmark built in the 1930’s." The New York Times 09/28/06

Chicago Children's Museum To Get New Downtown Home "The popular Chicago Children's Museum has settled on a new site in Grant Park after ruling out several other options, including a controversial plan for the north end of the park... Museum officials expect to build a two-story, 100,000-square-foot building, nearly double the size of the museum's current space. They hope to break ground in 2007." Chicago Tribune 09/28/06

Looking Under Mona Lisa's Skin Much was revealed in a new scan of Leonardo's Mona Lisa. "More generally, the researchers said they realized that centuries of grime had obscured some elements of the painting. 'You’re seeing a lot more fine detail, showing that this remarkable painting is actually more remarkable than we believed'." The New York Times 09/28/06

Jopling Expands His London Gallery London dealer Jay Jopling is upgrading his iconic White Cube gallery in London wih a $20 million makeover. "The 12,500-square-foot building in Mason's Yard, resembling a little Whitney Museum, opens on Sept. 29 with an exhibition and sale of works by Mexico's Gabriel Orozco." Bloomberg 09/27/06

Twenty-one Hitler Paintings Sold "The sale yesterday raised more than double the 50,000 pounds expected by the paintings' Belgian owners. The highest bid was for a painting called 'The Church of Preux-au-Bois,' which sold for 10,500 pounds." Bloomberg 09/27/06

WTC Building - One Big Mess Planning for the World Trade Center site have been a disaster. "A generation that never knew the city without the Twin Towers has placed them high in skyscraper hagiography because of their terrible fate. But the New York skyline has changed many times, and will again." OpinionJournal 09/28/06

Cuts Put Canadian Museums At Risk Canada's new Conservative government announced this weeks that it would be making major cuts in the Heritage Department, "$4.6-million of which would be coming from the Museums Assistance Program (MAP) over the next two years." The announcement has rocked the country's regional museums, which are already underfunded, and will be in danger of closing if new revenue streams can't be found to replace the federal money. The Globe & Mail (Canada) 09/27/06

• Didn't You Just Give Us That Money? So who's behind the Canadian culture cuts? That would be finance minister Jim Flaherty, and Martin Knelman says that Flaherty seems to be doubling back on his own word. "In the course of slashing $4.6 million from the Museum Assistance Program of Ottawa's heritage ministry — not to avoid a deficit but to fluff up a surplus — Flaherty seemed to be grabbing money from one culture-world pocket while only midway through putting money into the other pocket. In effect, he has taken back a large part (close to 25 per cent) of the increased funding he promised to the cultural sector last spring in his first budget — not a dime of which has yet made its way to anyone in the arts." Toronto Star 09/27/06

Two UK Galleries Team Up For Big Acquisition "The Tate in London and the National Galleries of Scotland in Edinburgh announced yesterday that they were jointly trying to acquire some 700 works of contemporary art from Anthony d’Offay, the retired London dealer. If the millions of dollars needed can be raised, the acquisition will represent the largest addition of contemporary art either institution has received." The two institutions have agreed in principle to share the art, but the details of that arrangement remain to be worked out. The New York Times 09/27/06

Scanning Mona Lisa In 3D "Canada's National Research Council (NRC) will use the 3D scan to reveal features invisible to the naked eye, giving scientists and art historians a new perspective on the painting and helping to uncover some of the mysteries surrounding Leonardo da Vinci's 'sfumato' painting technique." The Guardian (UK) 09/27/06

On The Trail Of The Russian Fakes "The boom in the Russian art market has been so intense that it has spawned countless forgeries. Many are indifferent landscapes of northern-European origin, which have been embellished with false signatures and details to make non-Russian subjects look Russian and therefore more valuable." The Telegraph (UK) 09/26/06

Munch Paintings Back On Display The two iconicMunch paintings recovered after a dramatic theft two years ago are going back on display in oslo. "The paintings were not so badly damaged that they could not be displayed without full-artistic appreciation." BBC 09/27/06

"Sensation"al Dispersal The "Sensation" show in 1997 is one of the most famous art exhibitions in the past decade. So where did the art from the show go? The Art Newspaper 09/27/06

Rent-a-Saatchi Want to have an art collection like Charles Saatchi's? Now, you can have his collection. The high-profile collector has "privately published a catalogue of 600 works of art which are available for hire. The glossy 393-page publication provides a fascinating insight into his collection." The Art Newspaper 09/27/06

Leonardo, Lateral Thinker "The 6,000 or so extant pages of text and drawings attributed to Leonardo da Vinci are thought to represent only about one-fifth of his output. Yet, remarkably, in a new show at the Victoria and Albert Museum here, just 62 yellowing sheets suffice to illuminate the endlessly curious and inventive mind of this quintessential Renaissance man. ... [T]he display, which runs through Jan. 7, sets out to explore how Leonardo used paper to brainstorm about the mysteries and mechanics of life. And it reveals him to be an early master of lateral thinking." The New York Times 09/26/06

Why The V&A Turned Down Gates's Leonardo Gates wanted onerous terms for display of his Leonardo codex and the Victoria & Albert Museum felt it couldn't comply. "The terms for the showing of [the codex] included having people being searched going in, having to leave all their metallic objects behind and so on. The security people said that if you had these two airport-style walkthroughs, the corridors would be jammed up." The Guardian (UK) 09/26/06

In Cambodia A Museum Reborn "After a period of near ruin in the 1970’s under the Khmer Rouge, when this city was forcibly emptied, and then years of struggle to raise money and hire staff members, the National Museum of Cambodia has made a comeback. Visitors are coming in droves, catalogs of the permanent collection have been prepared, and conservation is now a major priority." The New York Times 09/26/06

Art Smuggler Offers Mysterious Masterpiece In Return For Time Off "A convicted antiquities smuggler has offered to return a previously unknown ancient masterpiece known as 'Object X' to Italy in exchange for reducing the jail time and fines he faces for supplying loot to U.S. museums." Bloomberg 09/25/06

Mona Lisa 2 An early copy of Leonardo's Mona Lisa is being shown in London for the first time in more than 100 years. "The reproduction is thought to have been traced from the original by a French artist, who has not been identified, a century after Leonardo created his masterpiece between 1503 and 1516. Copies of famous paintings were made in those days as it was often difficult to see originals and required long trips." CBC 09/25/06

A (Wildly Successful) Product Of His Era "The career curve that is traced [in a new London exhibition] takes Rodin from the youthful emulation of classical figures to a position of extra-ordinary eminence from whose heights he 'heralded the modern age'... But this avid appetite for contemporary relevance is distracting: the more important point about Rodin is that he was not very modern at all, either in style or subject matter. In fact he was the 19th-century artist writ large, the product of an era when the capture of mainstream art by capital, and by the state, was a recent phenomenon, and when successful artists became not only powerful celebrities but also full participants in the social and economic establishment." Financial Times (UK) 09/24/06

The Most Underrated Famous Architects In The World "It takes a certain chutzpah to argue that Skidmore, Owings & Merrill is underrated. The firm is, after all, a colossus of world architecture with well over 10,000 projects to its credit, including several of the most iconic modernist buildings of the 20th century... But none of this quite dispels the sense that when the story of American architecture's development is told, SOM, which celebrates its 70th anniversary this year, gets short shrift." Chicago Sun-Times 09/24/06

Recycled Safety Trumps Original Design Nashville's new Schermerhorn Symphony Center has received plenty of raves since opening two weeks ago. But not everyone loves the design: "The symphony's leaders could have chosen to make a bold statement about the present and future of classical music in their city, as orchestras in Los Angeles, Miami and Philadelphia have done in recent years by commissioning Frank Gehry, Cesar Pelli and Rafael Vinoly, respectively. Instead they turned to David Schwarz, a capable architect but hardly a visionary, who has delivered exactly what was ordered: a custom-made amalgam of recycled architectural elements from the past, most connected only tenuously to Nashville." Chicago Sun-Times 09/24/06

Saltz: Where Are The Women??? Jerry Saltz looks for women in New York art institutions. "According to the fall exhibition schedules for 125 well-known New York galleries—42 percent of which are owned or co-owned by women—of 297 one-person shows by living artists taking place between now and December 31, just 23 percent are solos by women. On the fourth and fifth floors of the Museum of Modern Art, in the galleries devoted to the permanent collection of art from 1879 to 1969, there are currently 399 objects. Only 19, or 5 percent, of those objects are by women. Meanwhile, since 2000 only 14 percent of the Guggenheim's solo shows of living artists have been devoted to women." Village Voice 09/22/06

UK Prohibits Turner Painting From Leaving Country A Turner painting which sold for a record £5.8 million at auction earlier this year has been banned from export from the UK. "The temporary export ban gives UK arts institutions two months to express a serious interest in buying The Blue Rigi, which features a Swiss landscape." BBC 09/22/06

What Italy Wants From Boston's MFA Italy is pressing Boston's Museum of Fine Arts to return artifacts whose ownership is in dispute, and a deal appears close. Here's a list and discussion with the MFA's former curator... Scoop.nz 09/21/06

A Soaring New Denver Art Museum James Russell reports that the Daniel Libeskind-designed building is "an extraordinary celebration of the city's idealism and aspiration. The building has the peculiar magnetic power of a glowing geode produced by a crashed meteorite. Its folded planes in luminous matte titanium catch the sharp, high-altitude light, kaleidoscopically alternating deep shadows with shades of reflection." Bloomberg.com 09/21/06

Artist Sues Over Copyright Of Wall Street's Bull The artists who created the famous charging bull on Wall Street is suing eight companies, including Wal-Mart for infringing on the copyright of his work. "Arturo Di Modica claimed the companies are selling knockoff copies of his sculpture or using images of the famous statue in ad campaigns without his permission, according to a lawsuit filed yesterday in Manhattan federal court." Bloomberg.com 09/21/06

Art At Lincoln Center (No Not That Art) Art at Lincoln Center isn't just about performances. Forty-five years ago the center set up the "List Poster and Print program, which was established in 1962 to bring world-class contemporary poster art to the new performing arts center." Artists who have created work for the program include Helen Frankenthaler, Robert Motherwell, and Gerhard Richter. New York Sun 09/21/06

Smithsonian Art Museums Gain Attendance Overall Smithsonian attendance is down. But "the National Portrait Gallery and the Smithsonian American Art Museum have drawn nearly a quarter-million people to the Reynolds Center since it reopened in early July. That is a dramatic upturn; the museums had never drawn more than 450,000 a year." Washington Post 09/21/06

Young American Art - It's Hot In London Young American art is taking London by storm this autumn – not in the salerooms, but in our public institutions and private galleries where, behind the scenes, a new, potentially volcanic market is bubbling. The Telegraph (UK) 09/20/06

Paris Rethinks Disney And Les Gauche Americans "The Grand Palais is paying homage to Walt Disney — seriously, academically and without a trace of disdain for American pop culture. Disney "was one of the great geniuses of the 20th century and the greatest storyteller of the 20th century," gushed curator Bruno Girveau, who tirelessly promoted his project to skeptics who couldn't understand why he wanted to put Mickey Mouse on walls usually graced by Matisse or Monet... Lately, the French seem intent on debunking the stereotype that they turn up their noses at Americana." Los Angeles Times 09/20/06

Why Bill Gates Refused Leonardo Loan To V&A He had agreed in principle to the loan, but when his tough terms proved unacceptable, the V&A’s request was dropped. The Art Newspaper 09/09/06

Green: Kimmelman Wrong On Klimt Sale AJBlogger Tyler Green takes issue with NY Times critic Michael Kimmelman's story about selling off Klimt paintings recovered many years after being stolen by Nazis. "He views the Bloch-Bauer heirs selling of four Klimts as emblematic of greed, as sad examples of what happens in a booming art market. He thinks it's too bad the paintings could go into private collections... if you want to be angry at someone for not ensuring that the Klimts ended up in private collections, what about the wealthy trustees at major museums?" Modern Art Notes (AJBlogs) 09/19/06

• Righting Wrongs On Restituted Art - An Issue Of Principle Lee Rosenbaum defends Michael Kimmelman's view that heirs who get restitution of Nazi-looted art ought to consider making it possible for museums to acquire them. "A public-spirited disposition of such art would underscore the point that righting the wrongs of the Holocaust is, above all, an issue of principle, not personal gain." CultureGrrl (AJBlogs) 09/20/06

In Discreet Boston, A $10 Million Donor Goes Public "The Museum of Fine Arts announced yesterday that George D. Behrakis, with a gift of more than $10 million, has become the biggest identified contributor yet to the MFA's planned $500 million expansion campaign. ... Museum officials praised Behrakis for being willing to publicize his contribution. In the past, they've been frustrated by the insistence of many of Boston's biggest arts donors on anonymity. By agreeing to be named, officials said, Behrakis makes it easier for the museum to recruit donors." Boston Globe 09/19/06

Who Will Buy Four Remaining Klimts? "In retrospect it may yet come to seem a pity that the Austrians declined to buy all five works for about the same amount that Mr. Lauder paid for Adele, saying the price was too high. At least the works would all have remained on public view." The New York Times 09/19/06

Where's The Real Architecture At This Year's Venice Biennale? "At least half the 10th International Architecture Biennale, held in various locations in La Serenissima this autumn, comes as a disappointment. The main exhibition - held in the old naval dockyard, the Arsenale - raises questions of world importance; but the solutions by architects, displayed in the national pavilions in the nearby Public Gardens, are, for the most part, weak, flippant and severely lacking in imagination. There is little here that might have excited Calvino's Marco Polo." The Guardian (UK) 09/19/06

Tate Says How Much It Paid (For Art) The Tate releases a list of prices it has paid for recent purchases. "If the public wants to have transparency, they have to recognize that there may be additional costs to the public purse. I still believe it's probably the right thing to be doing." Bloomberg.com 09/18/06

Tate Has A Big Year At The Gate Tate Britain has had its biggest year at the box office since Tate Modern opened. "A record 1.7 million people visited the original Tate gallery at Millbank, partly thanks to a promotion of its free collection. BP, which has sponsored regular re-hangs of Tate Britain's displays, has now renewed its support until 2012." The Independent (UK) 09/19/06

Ancient Petroglyphs In Danger The largest collection of ancient art rock in the world is under threat, says a new report. "The carvings are 6,000 to 30,000 years old and chronicle the cultural heritage of ancient Aboriginal societies. The petroglyphs are under threat because of acid rain from existing petrochemical plants in the region, and projects that involve blasting to clear the way for development, the report said." CBC 09/18/06

Discovery: The Oldest Writing In North America? Writing that is 3000 years old in a language not known before now has been found on a stone in Mexico. "Scholars are tantalized by a message in stone in a script unlike any other and a text they cannot read. They are excited by the prospect of finding more of this writing, and eventually deciphering it, to crack open a window on one of the most enigmatic ancient civilizations." The New York Times 09/16/06

Klimts To Be Auctioned In November Christie's will auction the remaining four Gustav Klimt paintings returned earlier this year after being looted by Nazis in World War II. "The four works, which are together valued at nearly $100 million, include 'Adele Bloch-Bauer II,' a 1912 portrait of Mrs. Bloch-Bauer in fashionable street clothes and a wide-brimmed hat. Christie’s estimates that it could fetch $40 million to $60 million." The New York Times 09/16/06

Lebanese Archaeological Sites Damaged In Recent War The recent war between Israel and Lebanon damaged some important buildings in Lebanon. "A Roman tomb in Tyre and a medieval tower in Byblos have been significantly damaged by the war, the official leading a survey of Lebanese archaeological sites told The Observer late last week." The Observer (UK) 09/17/06

Are Our New Museums Up To The Task? "The paradox of a contemporary museum becomes most overt when an institution that deals in established status enters a realm where doubt is both inevitable and essential. It isn't clear that the museum is the best place for new objects to be tested. With so much invested-financially, culturally, and even politically-in these institutions, their tendency is to cover up the vital uncertainty of the moment (everything from the quality of the work to its meaning and eventual role in history) with a wealth of supporting material." Boston Globe 09/17/06

Schama: Bernini Matters Simon Schama writes that Bernini "used the power of art to achieve the most difficult thing in the world: the visualisation of bliss... Before Bernini, sculpture's preoccupation had been with immortality. When modern sculptors looked at, and learned from, antiquity, what they saw was the translation of mortal humanity into something purer, chillier and more enduring: gods and heroes." The Guardian (UK) 09/16/06

Banksy Takes LA British "guerrilla" artist Banksy hits Los Angeles. "Somehow, despite his mainstream appeal, Banksy has lost none of the respect of his more 'underground' British peers. When people talk about graffiti they talk about Banksy. Famous people have always come to his exhibitions because his stuff is easy to read." The Observer (UK) 09/17/06

The Art Dealer At The Right Time, Right Place Ambroise "Vollard was a classic example of right place, right time. Important artists were in and out of his gallery buying, selling and trading paintings, and collectors followed. He never spoke a foreign language... yet he soon attracted an important international crowd of Russians, Germans, Americans and other collectors." Los Angeles Times 09/17/06

Denver Art Musem - Ready For The Big Time? The Denver Art Museum has always been underappreciated, writes Kyle McMillan. "Unlike some Eastern and Midwestern art institutions, which established their reputations in the 1920s and '30s, many of the Denver Art Museum's top collections did not come together until decades later. Its standing consequently has suffered. All that will soon change" with the opening of the museum's new Daniel Libeskind-designed building. Denver Post 09/17/06

MoMA Retells Modern The Museum of Modern Art takes its latest stab at retelling the story of modern art. Peter Schjeldahl writes that "the show crystallizes a recurrent suspicion that, at present, high culture inhabits an interminable aftermath of lost or broken purposes. The poetic tone of today’s most vital art tilts toward elegy." The New Yorker 09/11/06

The Case Of The Missing Leg (And The Painting It Belongs To) Forty years ago Jasper Johns made a plaster cast of Barbara Rose's leg and included it in one of his works. Eventually it ended up in Iran. But when a collection of major Western art went on display last year in the Tehran Museum, the work was missing. Where, wonders Rose, might it have ended up? OpinionJournal.com 09/15/06

Richard Serra On How Public Sculpture Is Challenging Architecture "Public sculpture used to have a code. There was a given iconography written into the way we worshiped our heroes. Public sculpture had to do with the depiction of a historical time or event. Once the work came down from its pedestal and became organized in relation to its present time and space, it began to challenge architecture in a way that it hadn't before." Christian Science Monitor 09/15/06

Christie's Widens Its Business Lead "Last year, for the first time in decades, Christie’s claimed ascendancy over Sotheby’s. In the first half of 2006 Christie’s extended its lead, selling $2.13 billion, up 38% on 2005, while Sotheby’s turned over $1.96 billion. Since the 1960s, Sotheby’s has always claimed the lead, although the gap between the two narrowed through the 1990s." The Art Newspaper 09/14/06

The Art Investment Fund And The Museum "Art funds are a relatively new phenomenon, spawned by the financial markets’ constant search for new gizmos and by the booming art market, particularly the contemporary art market. About 12 funds have been created in the past three years, playing off the contrast between the surging art market and the flat stock market. Those that have stayed the course include The Fine Art Fund and The China Fund. Notwithstanding their financial marginality, art funds raise interesting dilemmas when their holdings are shown in public museums."
The Art Newspaper 09/14/06

Tate, National Beaten To Painting By Dealer The Tate Museum and Washington DC's National Gallery were both in the hunt to buy Turner’s masterpiece, The Dark Rigi. But both were outmaneuvered by a crafty London dealer... The Art Newspaper 09/14/06

Seattle Art Museum Agrees To Public Disclosure The Seattle Art Museum considers a reporter's suggestion that deaccessioning records be made public and agrees. "It’s never come up as an issue before. We want to be open and perfectly honest, and we try to be transparent as times change. I had to think it through, but it makes perfect sense." The Stranger (Seattle) 09/14/06

Cleveland Acquires Famous Marsh Painting "The Cleveland Museum of Art recently acquired a widely reproduced masterpiece by Reginald Marsh, a superlative chronicler of Depression-era life in America. The painting, 'A Paramount Picture,' from 1934, depicts a rumpled, working-class woman standing near a well-to-do couple outside a movie theater showing Cecil B. DeMille's 'Cleopatra.'" The museum has not revealed what it paid for the painting. The Plain Dealer (Cleveland) 09/14/06

Munch Masterpieces To Go Back Before Public "Two recovered Edvard Munch paintings will go on display in Oslo before they are repaired, say museum officials. Masterpieces The Scream and Madonna were stolen by two armed men in a daring daylight raid in 2004. Police recovered the paintings in August, and Norway's Munch Museum said both works had suffered slight damage. They will be put on display briefly over the next few weeks." BBC 09/14/06

Bilbao Effect - Profitable By 2010? "A new study by the economist Beatriz Plaza of the University of the Basque Country suggests that the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao will not return a profit on the public funds paid to establish the institution until 2010 at the earliest, despite reports from the museum that this investment has already been paid off." The Art Newspaper 09/07/06

The Tax Law That Kills Art Gifts? Imminent tax code changes have American museum directors worried donations of art will dry up. But "some members of Congress saw the previous law as ripe for abuse and out of sync with most of the tax code, which does not allow fractional gifts of tangible assets and which tends to require that the public benefit for a charitable contribution occur in the same year that the taxpayer takes a deduction for the gift." The New York Times 09/13/06

The Mystery Of Michelangelo "What is it, in this age of hype and empty celebrity, that makes the name of Michelangelo so magnetic? One can perhaps understand the draw when Van Gogh or the Impressionists take over a museum. These are the prophets of a modern sensibility: lyrical, colorful, yet with an edge of experimentation and a tinge of revolt. Michelangelo, by contrast, is remote, often deliberately unapproachable, cerebral, scathingly hard on himself (and all around him), and devoted to values, both aesthetic and spiritual, that are now long gone." Commentary 09/06

Donor Pays $1 Million, Public Gets In Free "The Baltimore Museum of Art has received a $1 million gift from a local philanthropist to support its new policy of free admission to the public that begins Oct. 1. Suzanne F. Cohen, former chairwoman of the BMA board and a long-time supporter of the museum's programs, donated the money last November, during her tenure as board chair, to establish an endowment that will be known as the Cohen Family Fund for Free Admission, the museum said." Baltimore Sun 09/11/06

Post-9/11, Architecture Shifts Toward Excitement "The destruction of the World Trade Center is part of the reason American architecture is more brash and experimental than ever before. The void left by the collapse of the world's most recognizable pair of towers showed us with grim clarity that buildings matter -- as icons, as memories, as something we all share. ... After a generation where conformity was the norm, we'll soon learn if provocative drama has a place in America's urban landscape. Cities across the country are opening the door to imaginative designs that exult in the unexpected -- and at skyline scale." San Francisco Chronicle 09/12/06

Pelli's New Concert Hall Handsome, Yes, But ... "At age 79, the Argentine-born, Connecticut-based architect Cesar Pelli is inevitably described in newspaper and magazine profiles these days as diplomatic and genteel. In his design for the $200-million Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall in Costa Mesa, which opens Friday night, he and his firm have produced a building that brings the very same adjectives to mind. In other words, if you are optimistic enough to believe that classical music — or architecture, for that matter — is an evolving art form with the capacity to provoke as well as merely soothe, you will likely find it enormously disappointing." Los Angeles Times 09/12/06

Museum Names (Not Playing In Peoria) Peoria is getting a new museum, but a contest asking the public to vote on names has backfired. It seems people don't like any of the names. "Museum leaders chose the four finalists from 500 suggested by surveys, committees and focus groups ('What was your focus group? A group of 5-year-olds?' someone wrote on the Web site). Officials hope to choose a name next month." Chicago Sun-Times 09/11/06

Towers Of Low Expectations That's what Nicolai Ouroussoff thinks of the latest efforts for the WTC site. "For those who cling to the idea that the site’s haunting history demands a leap of imagination, the towers illustrate how low our expectations have sunk since the city first resolved to rebuild there in a surge of determination just weeks after 9/11." The New York Times 09/11/06

Banksy Strikes Again (At Disneyland) The self-styled "guerilla" artist placed a life-size figure representing a hooded prisoner at Guantanamo Bay inside a ride at Disneyland. "A spokeswoman for Banksy said the stunt was intended to highlight the plight of terror suspects at the controversial detention centre in Cuba. Banksy is notorious for his secretive and subversive stunts - such as sneaking doctored versions of classic paintings into major art galleries." BBC 09/11/06

A New Take On WTC Towers What to make of the new towers proposed for the site of the World Trade Center? Justin Davidson: "The three new towers have shaken some life back into Libeskind's ideas. Their peaks sweep upwards, more or less; they disdain symmetry and borrow mildly from his vocabulary of interpenetrating shapes. Call them Libeskind Lite." Newsday 09/11/06

• City Of Memorials The World Trade Center site is not the only memorial. Throughout the New York region there are other memorials. "Was Sept. 11, 2001 like Dec. 7, 1941: the start of America's involvement in a global war that was already under way and in which the United States will eventually emerge victorious? Or was it, to name just one other possibility, an alarm that the country has completely misread, and to which it reacted disastrously? How can we properly interpret an event we have barely begun to understand? And how can we hope to do so on so large a scale?" Newsday 09/11/06

Another Fight Over Nazi-Looted Art A case in US courts is a battle over art looted by Nazis. "The case pits an ailing, elderly German baroness in Providence against a wealthy Canadian foundation created to benefit three universities in Canada and Israel. And it involves a Jewish lawyer in Boston who has helped Jewish families recover art lost during the Holocaust, but who now represents the baroness in a dispute over whether she possesses art stolen by her Nazi stepfather -- and whether she broke the law by taking the painting to Germany in search of an overseas court sympathetic to her position." Boston Globe 09/10/06

WTC - Going Up? There have been so many designs for the site of the World Trade Center. The latest were unveiled last week. "A first impression is that, while none is dazzling, the three together would restore a much-needed jolt of verticality to the sheared-off lower Manhattan skyline." Chicago Tribune 09/10/06

The Death Of Skyscrapers? (Not Hardly) "The global resurgence is not just a real estate phenomenon. It is a creative revival, representing at its best a rethinking of the tall building that goes well beyond the cosmetic gesturesapplied like so much rouge to the decoration-slathered postmodern towers of the 1980s. But something has changed, something fundamental: In many skyscrapers around the world, fear has joined form, function and finance as an integral part of the skyscraper equation." Chicago Tribune 09/10/06

Architecture, Terror, And Renewal "If it's true that architecture holds up an unflinching mirror to society reflecting how we live, then the story our buildings tell five years after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon is as complex -- and as conflicted -- as America itself." Chicago Tribune 09/10/06

Appeal Sought In Nazi Loot Case Madrid's Thyssen-Bornemisza museum is appealing a US court's ruling in "a lawsuit seeking the return of a disputed Impressionist masterpiece allegedly stolen by the Nazis from a Jewish family during World War II." The Spanish government, which administers the museum, had asked the court to dismiss a lawsuit by a San Diego family which claims it is the proper owner of the Pissarro street scene valued at $20 million. Los Angeles Times 09/09/06

Destroying The National Mall, Step By Painful Step Washington, D.C.'s National Mall is arguably "America's greatest 20th century work of civic landscape art." But in recent years, politicians have given their blessing to a series of projects which Christopher Knight says are ruining the whole area. "The Mall's planning and oversight process is irreparably broken. At least six federal agencies, eight congressional committees, plus the District of Columbia have jurisdiction — so many competing overlords that no one is effectively in charge. That makes it ripe for exploitation." Los Angeles Times 09/09/06

• A District Under Siege By Its Own Leaders In an age of terror fears, Washington, D.C. has become a virtual fortress, and Blair Kamen says that "in this struggle between armor and aesthetics, armor is invariably emerging the victor, marring public buildings and public spaces that symbolize the ideals of democracy and help hold together a diverse, often-fractious society." Chicago Tribune 09/10/06

Will Shiite Clerics Spell The End Of Iraqi Antiquities? "There is mounting concern among scholars that the appointment of religiously conservative Shiite Muslims throughout Iraq’s traditionally secular archaeological institutions could threaten the preservation of the country’s pre-Islamic history." The New York Times 09/09/06

A Tax Law That Could Hurt Museums New tax law in America may make art collectors less willing to donate to museums. "This may be a calculation remote from most people's lives, but museum directors say they depend on this intricate system of financial incentives to stimulate people's generosity and attract works that the museum could never afford to buy. If the balance between the advantages of donating versus selling shifts, wealthy individuals will be much less likely to give a valuable painting or sculpture away." New York Sun 09/08/06

Austria's Greatest Art Thief Jailed The man who pulled off the biggest art theft in Austria has been sentenced to four years in jail. "Robert Mang stole the 16th century gold sculpture the 'Saliera' (Salt Cellar) from a glass showcase in Vienna's Art History Museum." BBC 09/07/06

Pompidou Takes Responsibility For Damaged Artwork How did the Pompidou Museum damage an artwork from a show of Los Angeles art last spring? A museum investigation assigns the blame: "A restorer was called in to glue the metal ring in place, but her instructions to let the glue set for 24 hours were 'misinterpreted' by a Pompidou employee who hung the work that same day. It fell from the wall that night." The Art Newspaper 09/07/06

• Pompidou Offers To Pay To Recreate Damaged Art The museum has contacted the artists "to see if they would be interested in remaking the works as they are reproducible in the technical sense. We would, of course, assume the costs of the study and the fabrication." Bloomberg 09/07/06

The 9/11 Images That Won't Go Away So many piectures of 9/11. But how to make sense of it? "The technology exists to allow people to spend the rest of their lives re-creating that day, taking it apart minute-by-minute and trying to put it back together again. It is now buildings that rapidly disappear, while digital storage and retrieval of information offers the promise of images that don't fade and countless opportunities for enhancement, editing and playback of an experience." OpinionJournal.com 09/07/06

A 3D Castiglione As a promotion for a show of art from the Louvre in Atlanta, animators have created 3D images of some of the art for a TV spot. "Most contemporary artists wouldn't allow their work to be doctored but because the Louvre pieces are hundreds of years old, 'we had a little more freedom'." Atlanta Journal-Constitution 09/07/06

Reality Check - Can Art Change The World? "Most art world denizens would instinctively say yes. But if by "change" you mean, can art on its own change global warming, stop Iran's president from denying the Holocaust, or halt the spread of AIDS, the answer, I'm afraid, is no. In concert with other things, however, art can change the world incrementally and by osmosis." Village Voice 09/07/06

WTC - A Forest Of Towers We finally get a look at the towers that will surround the World Trade Center site. Doesn't mean they'll really be built (WTC politics being what they are) but here they are. "The name-brand architects - Norman Foster of London; Richard Rogers, also of London; and Fumihiko Maki of Tokyo - tweaked the standard Manhattan office-building recipe rather than producing signature star turns." Bloomberg.com 09/07/06

But They Draw The Line At The Oil Portrait Of Mr. T Score one more fight for that ultimate underdog, Rocky. "The 8-foot bronze statue of the fictional film character won another fight yesterday - over its own meaning and worth - when [Philadelphia's] Art Commission voted 6-2 to move the statue to a patch of lawn near the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Supporters maintained that the statue had stood the test of time and had become a beloved symbol of inspiration for Rocky fans. The two opponents felt the statue was unnecessary at that location - the museum steps themselves provided the magic and inspiration." Philadelphia Inquirer 09/07/06

Charles Saatchi On Collecting "I like to show off. I always buy art with the idea that I'm going to show it. Before, I was always mouthing off about how there aren't enough collectors. Now there are just too many. They're all very young and very rich, and they all like to collect art the way they buy their funds." The Guardian (UK) 09/06/06

The Numbers On Art Thefts "Experts have a tally of 170,000 pieces of missing art -- many stolen from private homes, others taken from museum walls or pilfered from storerooms. Only a small fraction are ever found: Interpol puts the figure at around 10 percent." Chicago Sun-Times 09/06/06

Canadian Artists Demand License Fees Canadian artists don't make anything on resale of their work. But some have begun demanding licensing fees from auction houses and dealers reprinting images of art to advertise sales. "For their part, auction houses and art dealers warn that such additional fees could tip some of them out of business or drive them away from exhibiting certain artists." The Globe & Mail (Canada) 09/06/06

German University Returns Parthenon Fragment A fragment of the Parthenon was returned to Greece this week. "The marble fragment of a foot, measuring only a few inches, was placed by Culture Minister George Voulgarakis back on the northern frieze of the 5th century BC Parthenon on Tuesday. Part of the frieze is now in the Acropolis Museum in Athens, but much is in London." Los Angeles Times 09/06/06

Failed Promise: WTC The design and building process for the World Trade Center has been a disaster, writes Paul Goldberger. "Forty years seem not to have got us beyond the folly of Nelson Rockefeller and the building of the original World Trade Center. And they haven’t freed us from the use of sanctimonious rhetoric to cover up what, ultimately, has turned out to be a lot more like a typical New York real-estate saga than anything else." The New Yorker 09/11/06

Vegas Mayor Wants A Mob Museum "Mayor Oscar Goodman, the flamboyant, gin-sipping, sports-gambling, showgirl-squiring executive of Sin City, is caught in a contradiction. For years he had told the world, 'There is no mob.' That was when he was a defense lawyer who represented mobsters and even had a cameo playing himself in Martin Scorsese's 'Casino.' Goodman said there were no mobsters--just alleged mobsters. Now, as mayor, he wants to take a National Historic Landmark, the old federal courthouse where he tried his first case, and turn it into a mob museum--and there's no alleged about it." Chicago Tribune 09/05/06

A New Way To Look At Frank Lloyd Wright Frank Lloyd Wright is "in many respects the Abraham Lincoln of architectural history, a figure who has inspired enough books to fill a small library. With "The Fellowship," Friedland, a professor of religious studies at UC Santa Barbara, and Zellman, a Los Angeles architect, enter this crowded field with an unusually detailed account of the architect's unorthodox design process." Los Angeles Times 09/04/06

Neighbors Try To Block Whitney Expansion Some neighbors of the Whitney Museum in New York have filed suit trying to block the museum's expansion. "The plaintiffs — two associations of residents and the owners of the Carlyle Hotel — claim that the Board of Standards and Appeals erred in granting the museum variances to zoning regulations, in order to allow the Whitney to go forward with its expansion, which includes a 178-foot stainless-steel-clad tower designed by the award-winning architect Renzo Piano." New York Sun 09/01/06