Back from Japan: Updates on Stories We've Been Following

Edward Hicks, "The Peaceable Kingdom with the Leopard of Serenity"
Photo: Sotheby's

First, another hearty thanks to my fabulous, recidivist guest blogger, Martin Filler, who has upstaged me in my own production: Thanks to his delicious posts on the best and worst new museums of 2007, visitors flocked to CultureGrrl in record numbers this week. And the hits just keep on coming.

The very good news is that Martin threatens to do it again: If all goes according to plan, he will be popping in on CultureGrrl whenever the spirit moves him, even when I'm not globetrotting. This is particularly good news because, as I plan to share with you next week, I had a Blogger's Identity Crisis while away on my Japanese vacation, and some major changes will occur in my own posting habits.

But not quite yet. Now that the Grrl is back, let's get up-to-speed on various contretemps and controversies we've been following:

---Is Randolph College now going ahead with auctioning its Maier Museum Four at Christie's? Carol Vogel, in today's NY Times, indicates yes (scroll down to her second item). Christie's spokesperson Rik Pike says, "At this point we have no news to share on any of the pictures." Christa Desrets of the Lynchburg News & Advance has the story on attempts by both the college and the opponents to the sale to claim the $500,000 from a bond that had been posted by the opponents during their aborted legal challenge,which had caused the paintings to be pulled from Christie's Nov. 29 American sale.

---In her above-linked "Inside Art," column, Vogel also has more details on the Esmerian sales that I reported on here, here and here. Sotheby's on Mar. 25 wouldn't tell me the amount of the unattained minimum bid in its unsuccessful "private auction" of Hicks' "The Peaceable Kingdom with the Leopard of Serenity" (above), but Vogel's got it---$10 million. And Bloomberg's Philip Boroff has the story on the Esmerian jewelry auction, scheduled and then cancelled (due to a legal challenge) at Christie's.

---The "seven-year residency" of the Guggenheim Hermitage Las Vegas at the Venetian Resort-Hotel-Casino will end on May 11? Not to worry: The two museums have now set their sights on a new site that thinks it needs their services---Vilnius, Lithuania. Guggenheim fave Zaha Hadid has been chosen to be the architect, if Krens' latest museum-in-the-sky ever gets past the feasibility-study stage. And I had thought that Krens' imminent departure signaled a grounding of the Global Guggenheim. The dreams and schemes just keep on coming.

---I recently opined that the trustees of the Barnes Foundation had not taken sufficiently vigorous steps to improve the foundation's financial viability in Merion, PA, because they were so keen to move to Philadelphia. Now that a challenge to the Philly move is back in Montgomery County Orphans Court, awaiting an imminent ruling from Judge Stanley Ott, the foundation has very belatedly taken a few steps to improve its fortunes, which it should have jumped on as soon as they were legally permissible.

I can only think that it is taking these steps now because Judge Ott might justifiably take a dim view of the Barnes' inexcusable neglect of its current circumstances, while focusing its energies on grandiose plans for the future:

The Barnes recently announced that it will at last take advantage of Lower Merion Township's permission to increase its visitation. Admission fees will also rise. In July 2007, the Barnes had acknowledged the township commissioners' permission to take these steps, but failed to do so, asserting that the increased revenue would "not be sufficient to alter in a substantial way the adverse economic situation that caused our board of trustees to seek permission to move the gallery art collection. It will not come close to providing the additional revenue sources that are essential to the financial health of this and all not-for-profit educational institutions."

Two new board members have also recently been named: Brenda Thompson, a psychologist and collector of African-American art, and Bruce Gordon, former telecommunications executive and former president and CEO of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. This brings the total number of board members to 12, still shy of the board expansion from five to 15 that Judge Ott, years ago, had allowed as an important step towards improving its donor base.

---Eric Gibson, in today's Wall Street Journal, adds his voice to the many critics of Whitney Biennial-Speak, citing a bevy of other bloggers who also groused about the museum's impenetrable curatorial prose. But let us not forget that the uncited CultureGrrl fulminated first, before the show had opened.

---If Peter Schjeldahl and Roberta Smith both find the Vuitton shop the most alluring part of the Murakami show at the Brooklyn Museum, they really need to get out to the mall more.