My Antiquities Q&A with the Getty's Michael Brand: Life after the Givebacks

Michael Brand
While I was in Los Angeles last month for the opening of the Broad Museum of Contemporary Art, I also spent an entire day at the Getty Museum's two campuses (the Center and the Villa), and got to sit down for a candid chat with the museum's director, Michael Brand, about the new phase in relations between American museums and source countries: What happens next, now that claimed objects have been relinquished?
Rosenbaum: Now that the agreements have been made with Italy and Greece, and objects have gone back, do you have any sense as to whether you will now have closure, or is this just the beginning of claims by source countries?
Brand: That
wording is for NEW acquisitions. You can't apply an acquisitions policy
retrospectively. The reasons why we have it in our policy is that,
while we use 1970 as the bright line, we are still concerned with the
provenance of the objects. If you can prove something was out of country before
1970, but there are some giant question marks out there and there are rumors and
suspicions, that would also be taken into account.
Brand: I wouldn't
comment on that.
Brand: Our policy does not solve the problem of the orphan. There IS a problem with the orphaned object. But there are all sorts of orphans. What we're trying to do in our discussion at AAMD [the Association of Art Museum Directors] is either deal with the orphan problem or get to the point where we can have a more productive discussion about the orphaned object. Our acquisiton policy doesn't deal with this.
Brand: I'd prefer
not to talk more about that. AAMD is in the midst of that very sort of
discussion, so to give a personal opinion would be counterproductive.
Brand: We are talking of a situation where, for the moment, the maximum is four years. Four years is not quite long enough to work really well....Ultimately I think it would be nice if you could have a category where things could be on almost permanent loan, but whenever the Italians wanted to get them back, they could. You could then build educational programs around them. You could build exhibitions around them....Sending them backwards and forwards every four years has some good points---you get other objects---but there's wear and tear.
You would also want to be able to ask, "Would
you consider lending for two years this fabulous object that it would be great
to have at the Getty Villa for this symposium? We recognize that
you couldn't part with it for four years, but a loan for longer than the usual
10 weeks for an exhibition would be fantastic."
Rosenbaum: Have
you started those discussions with them?
Brand: Yes. When Jim Wood [the Getty Trust's president]
and I were in Rome in late November for the American Academy conference, part of that
trip was starting this new relationship and introducing the Getty's staff to Italian
colleagues....We are talking about one particular loan as the first loan, which
would be fantastic. The better the loan, the more disucssion it requires.
Brand: One thing
you had to consider: If you went out and got [a list of] one-for-one [exchanged
objects] when the agreement was signed, would you get the best ones, or would
it be better to have a bit of a breather and to think about what you might ask
for?
Brand: We're just
starting the process. We have to consider the impact on our displays of the
objects going back. I thought the last calendar year was the one where you
nailed down the really contentious issues and learned who the players are....This is the year when
we start pursuing things. There are some really interesting ideas.
Brand: There's
the one particular object we're looking at as a potential first loan. You can
do the loans in various ways. You can have object-for-object. You can have all
for four years. You can have some for a shorter amount of time, some from a longer
amount of time. You can have loans from all over the place or you can build up
a link with one or more particular institutions, where maybe 10 objects come,
as part of building a relationship with an institution.
Michael, can I hold you to the "You'll be the first person I'll tell" part?
About
ADVERTISE on CultureGrrl MUSEUMS, GALLERIES, AUCTION HOUSES, ART PUBLICATIONS, ARTS PROGRAMS---Join the ranks of CultureGrrl's inaugural advertisers (on right). Please go here to place an ad. For more information on advertising, e-mail here.
LEE ROSENBAUM
Contact me
Click here to send me an email...
Blogroll
About Last Night
Art History Newsletter
Art History Today (U.K.)
Art Law Blog
Art Observed
Art To Go (Seattle)
Artblog.net
Articulations (Smithsonian)
Artopia
Design Observer
A Don's Life
Edward Lifson (Chicago)
Exhibitionist (Boston)
Eye Level (SAAM)
Foot in Mouth (dance)
Illicit Cultural Property
LA Observed (Los Angeles)
Looking Around (Time)
Looting Matters
Modern Kicks
NewYorkology--Architecture
NewYorkology--Museums
NYC Opera Fanatic
Opera Chic
Slog (Seattle)
Tropolism
Walker
AJ Ads
AJ Blogs
AJBlogCentral | rssspecial
the blog of the National Performing Arts Convention
Terry Teachout on the arts in New York City
Andrew Taylor on the business of arts & culture
rock culture approximately
Rebuilding Gulf Culture after Katrina
Douglas McLennan's blog
Art from the American Outback
John Rockwell on the arts
Jan Herman - arts, media & culture with 'tude
dance
Apollinaire Scherr talks about dance
Tobi Tobias on dance et al...
media
Jeff Weinstein's Cultural Mixology
Martha Bayles on Film...
music
Greg Sandow performs a book-in-progress
Howard Mandel's freelance Urban Improvisation
Focus on New Orleans. Jazz and Other Sounds
Exploring Orchestras w/ Henry Fogel
Kyle Gann on music after the fact
Doug Ramsey on Jazz and other matters...
Greg Sandow on the future of Classical Music
Norman Lebrecht on Shifting Sound Worlds
publishing
Jerome Weeks on Books
Scott McLemee on books, ideas & trash-culture ephemera
theatre
Chloe Veltman on how culture will save the world
Elizabeth Zimmer on time-based art forms
visual
Public Art, Public Space
John Perreault's art diary
Lee Rosenbaum's Cultural Commentary
Tyler Green's modern & contemporary art blog
