March 2011 Archives

Martin Sullivan, director of National Portrait Gallery, sitting next to me at NY Public Library's Dec. 15 discussion on "Hide/Seek"

Martin Sullivan, the admirable director of the National Portrait Gallery, is going to get stuck sitting with me once again.

He's the headliner of an Apr. 9 panel discussion at Rutgers University, Newark, NJ, in which I will be one of his co-panelists---Hide/Seek: Museums, Ethics and the Press. (I guess I'm "the press.") Admission is free but space is limited. Hit the link at the bottom of the online announcement to register.

Our moderator is author Daniel Okrent, who formerly served as the ethical watchdog of the NY Times, during his stint as that newspaper's first Public Editor.


Daniel Okrent

Our panel kicks off a full-day "Hide/Seek" fest, organized by Seton Hall University's Institute of Museum Ethics, in partnership with Rutgers' Institute for Ethical Leadership. What I'm particularly interested in (aside from my own panel, of course) is an afternoon talk by the Smithsonian's associate general counsel, Rachelle Browne, on "Moral Rights, Free Expression and Money: Predictable Ingredients for an Ethical Controversy?"

I've been one of very few commentators who have highlighted the moral rights issue raised by curator Jonathan Katz's cutting, splicing and soundtracking of David Wojnarovicz's subsequently removed video, so I'm eager to hear what Browne may have to say about this.

Sullivan, to me, has been the relatively unsung hero of this saga, stuck between a rock and a hard place, but managing to navigate through, earning respect from all sides. As CultureGrrl readers may remember, the NPG's director haplessly chose a seat next to mine (without realizing that he had just made himself a captive interviewee) when we both attended the curators' talk at the NY Public Library about his museum's controversial, gay-themed Hide/Seek show (which closed on Feb.13)

Sullivan handled this event skillfully, not only in graciously fielding my pesky questions, but especially in taming the hostile crowd when a questioner directly confronted him. He has all the crisis-management savvy that Smithsonian Secretary G. Wayne Clough seems to lack.

Speaking of which, the NY Times will be publishing in Sunday's "Arts & Leisure" section (online now) a long piece by Sheryl Gay Stolberg and Kate Taylor on the "Hide/Seek" controversy. (Clough declined to be interviewed for that article.) Their piece breaks little new ground but provides a useful recap of the controversy and its aftermath. One of its minor revelations is that at the Smithsonian's own public forum related to the "Hide/Seek" controversy, Apr. 26-27, "Mr. Clough will make introductory remarks but not take questions."

This posture is particularly problematic given the fact that he DID take questions (including one on "Hide/Seek") as the keynote speaker at the recent course for attorneys on "Legal Issues in Museum Administration," organized in Washington by American Law Institute-American Bar Association. (I reported on Clough's remarks here.)

In other recent "Hide/Seek"-related developments: The Corcoran Gallery in Washington, which achieved Culture War infamy with its last-minute cancelation of the 1989 Robert Mapplethorpe show, recently hosted a series of panel discussions (videos of which will soon be posted online) on: "Culture Wars: Then and Now."

And the Smithsonian has just published the detailed results of its "Hide/Seek" visitors' survey, which, for what it's worth, found (on p. 62) that 19% of visitors rated the show "superior," 51% "excellent," 26% "good", 4% "fair" and 2% "poor." This was pretty much on a par with the average overall ratings by exiting visitors for 70 Smithsonian exhibitions surveyed between 2004 and 2010.

As for the Smithsonian's own upcoming two-day forum on "Hide/Seek" (to take place in the Meyer Auditorium, Freer Gallery), no press release or agenda will be published before Apr. 13, but Smithsonian spokesperson Linda St. Thomas told me that the Apr. 26 program, 6-9 p.m., will likely be webcast and will focus specifically on "Hide/Seek."

That evening's program, she said, will include "a panel on curators' responsibilities and controversy, and another on presenting difficult or sensitive subjects, especially related to sexuality and gender. The Secretary, Julian Raby [director of Freer and Sackler Galleries and recently named the Smithsonian's arts advisor] and Richard Kurin [the Smithsonian's undersecretary for history, art and culture] will attend but will not be panelists. The two 'Hide/Seek' curators [David Ward and Jonathan Katz] will be on panels." There will, she said, be two opportunities for questions from the audience.

The next day's panels, 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., will cover "a range of topics, including museum stakeholders, presenting exhibitions in a national museum, and related cultural issues. [There will be] three sessions for Q&A."

Secretary Clough may be forced to endure some pointed Q&A at the Smithsonian's fiscal 2012 appropriations hearing before the House Subcommittee for Interior, Environment and Related Agencies, scheduled for 9:30 a.m., Apr. 7, Rayburn Building, Room B308 (subject to change). The hearing is open to the public.

To riff on that old Irving Berlin standard: "The show is ended, but the controversy lingers on."

Architect's rendering of Clyfford Still Museum, Denver

The Clyfford Still Museum, now under construction in Denver, is getting off on the wrong foot, before it even opens, by monetizing four works by the eponymous artist that would otherwise have been part of its collection. They are being sold, against the express wishes of the artist and his widow, due to a failure of fundraising.

Last Thursday, the Circuit Court for Carroll County, MD, gave the City and County of Denver the permission they had sought to sell four Clyfford Still paintings from the estate of the artist's widow, Patricia Still. Those proceeds, according to the court order, may be applied to the Clyfford Still Museum's endowment and to "other expenses required by the Donation Agreement between the Estate of Patricia Alice Still and the City and County of Denver."

The 30,000-square-foot museum, whose director, Dean Sobel, recently gave me a construction-site tour (see the CultureGrrl Video, below), had failed to raise sufficient endowment funds to support its $2-million estimated annual operating budget. Sobel told me on Feb. 8 that the museum, scheduled to open late this year, had raised only about $4 million for endowment. An additional $3 million, he said, had been raised for operations. Astonishingly for such a project, no specific endowment fundraising goal had been set.

This otherwise unsustainable business model depended upon getting court permission to beef up the paltry endowment by selling the four works by Still. According to stipulations in the wills of both the artist and his widow, those works should never be relinquished.

Some $30 million---enough to pay for construction of the Brad Cloepfil-designed facility---has been raised through conventional means. (The City and County of Denver are not providing any funds.) This has been done in a financial climate that made fundraising difficult but that also helped to reduce projected construction costs.

The museum had previously estimated that the paintings it had selected for sale would raise about $25 million. But yesterday, its spokesperson, Juliet Sorce of Resnicow Schroeder Associates, told me this:

The works have not been appraised recently and the museum is planning to do so now that it has the court order in hand....The museum has not yet selected an agent or method of marketing the works.

This disposal, through which Sobel hopes to keep the four paintings together and "in the public domain," may follow the letter, if not the spirit, of the "no deaccessions to support operations" rule that is deemed sacrosanct by most art museums and by their professional organization, the Association of Art Museum Directors (AAMD).

This is because the paintings are being offered for sale before the approximately 2,400 works from Clyfford's and Patricia's estates are physically transferred to the Still Museum. The museum asserts that because the collection is not yet in its possession, this cannot be termed a "deaccession." The ownership of the collection, however, will remain with City and County of Denver, even after the physical transfer. So this purported "non-deaccession" is arguably a distinction without a difference.

Whatever the legalistic loopholes, this gambit violates the spirit and letter of Clyfford and Patricia Still's written intentions for their collections, as clearly expressed in their wills.

Patricia, as Sobel points out, did sell some works during her own lifetime. But in her will, she insisted upon no further sales after her death. In permitting deviation from this stipulation, the court declared that the prohibition against sales was "impracticable."

The museum e-mailed to me this document with the relevant excerpts from Clyfford and Patricia's wills.

Patricia's will, mimicking similar provisions in the will of her husband, who predeceased her, states:

None of such works of art [the works by Clyfford Still in her estate] are ever to be sold, given, exchanged, loaned, circulated and/or otherwise disposed of at any time, for any length of time, and/or for any purpose but, to the contrary, shall be retained at all times in the Quarters exclusively and permanently provided for such art works for the purpose of the exhibition, study, preservation, maintenance and storage of the same.

You can't get any more unambiguous than that. These restrictions, in fact, are positively Barnes-ian. (Speaking of which, the postponed court hearing regarding the latest attempt to undo the Barnes Foundation's move to Philadelphia---which infamously involved court permission to deviate from Albert Barnes' own written stipulations---took place yesterday morning. That case continues...)

The executors of Patricia Still's estate "did not object to the petition" seeking permission to deviate from the terms of the will, according to the museum's press release. The museum vows that no further sales from the collection will occur. But the final sentence of court order appears to grant some leeway, in case another desperation deaccession is later deemed necessary:

IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that the petitioner be granted such other and further relief as the nature of its cause may require.

Here's what Christine Anagnos, AAMD's interim director, had to say yesterday, when I asked what her organization's current position is on the Still situation:

The planned sale of these works by the City of Denver, to raise funds for the Clyfford Still Museum's endowment, does not violate the Association's principles regarding the use of funds from deaccessioned works of art, because the museum has not formally accessioned these works into its collections.

What about the disregard of donor intent?

Again, because it's not deaccessioning of acquisitioned works by a museum, AAMD's policies do not apply.

Maybe its policies need to be updated to address a situation where a nascent museum, through actions taken (with the museum's active encouragement) by the current and future owner of its collection, violates of the express wishes of its eponymous artist/donor.

The Still Museum has repeatedly declined to send me photos of any of the works to be sold. When I asked Sobel for images during our conversation last month, he said that he didn't want the works to be "shopped around" via released images. Spokeswoman Juliet Sorce yesterday gave me a different reason for not sharing these: "The museum only has poor-quality archival images of these works that are not cleared for reproduction/media usage."

The works, which do not have titles, have been identified to me only by their numbers:

---PH-351 (1940), 41 by 37½ inches
---PH-584 (1947), 69½ by 59 inches
---PH-89 (1949), 93 by 79 inches
---PH-1033 (1976), 93½ by 83 inches

A month and a half before the court decision, I asked Sobel what the museum would do if permission to sell the works were denied. He told me:

We would ramp up our efforts to raise endowment and would do less in those first several years.

That "ramp-up" should have been the museum's first resort, not its last resort. This might have made compliance with Patricia Still's stipulations far less "impracticable" than it has now become.

[Speaking of ramped-up fundraising and impracticalities, my warmest thanks go out to CultureGrrl Donors 160 and 161 from San Diego and Burlington, VT.]

On the coldest and snowiest morning of my three-day Denver visit, Sobel graciously took me on a tour of the construction site, where part of the building's cast-in-place concrete skin is now visible. We entered a mock-up of a gallery, where you'll see a reproduction of a Hans Namuth photograph of the artist on one wall and a reproduction of a Still painting on another:

If that construction video makes you eager to see what the finished product may look like, here's the museum's own fly-through of what appears to be a very attractive space (although that bench in the middle doesn't look very comfortable):

Zahi Hawass meeting at the end of Februrary with young archaeologists representing the protesters

When I commented on Monday that Zahi Hawass was "still issuing statements on his website as if he were in charge," maybe he knew something that I didn't: He essentially WAS in charge (or was about to be).

No word on his own website yet, but the Middle East News Agency (MENA), owned by the Egyptian government, has broken the news (in Arabic) that Egypt's Prime Minister Essam Sharaf today reappointed Hawass to his pre-revolution post of Minister of Antiquities.

Al-Ahram and Agence France-Presse (AFP) have posted English-language versions of the story here and here.

AFP writes:

Hawass' appointment is likely to anger pro-democracy activists who have been calling for the cabinet to purged of all old regime elements.

But it is also likely to help with coordination of efforts to protect endangered archaeological sites. Looters took advantage of the post-revolution chaos and leadership vacuum after Hawass stepped down.

It remains to be seen whether Hawass, returned to power, will take seriously the recent criticisms of his policies and practices, including concerns voiced by young protesters (scroll down) about allegedly restrictive practices for hiring archaeologists.

Head of UNESCO's delegation to Egypt: Christian Manhart, chief of the Museums and Cultural Objects Section

The recoveries of some of the 54 objects reported missing from the Egyptian Museum as of Mar. 15 continue.

Nevine El-Aref of Al-Ahram reports that five more objects were recovered yesterday, "with the help of Egypt's armed forces and the tourism and antiquities police." (No further details are provided about how or from whom they were recovered.) The recovery of 12 other objects was reported on Mar. 17.

According to El-Aref's article:

The five [newly recovered] items include four bronze objects depicting different ancient Egyptian deities, such as Osiris, the cat goddess Bastet, Apis Bull and Neith. All the returned objects are in good condition except the Apis Bull, which was broken into several pieces.  With restoration, archaeologists hope, it can be restored to its original form. Egyptian Museum Director Tarek El-Awadi believes that the remaining 37 objects remain in Egypt and have not been smuggled out of the country.

To aid in the recovery and protection efforts, UNESCO sent a delegation last week on a three-day tour of the Egyptian Museum and the country's pillaged archaeological sites. Christian Manhart, who led the mission as UNESCO's chief of the Museums and Cultural Objects Section, said that its purpose was "to extend a helping hand to Egyptians to restitute their missing heritage."

Specifically (as reported by Al-Ahram), UNESCO has offered to provide technical and security assistance to the Egyptian Museum, along with possible financial help. ICOM [the International Council of Museums] reportedly has established a Red List of stolen Egyptian antiquities to be sent to Interpol and disseminated internationally. But at this writing, ICOM's Red List website has not posted an Egyptian database.

There will potentially be much to include on that Red List. On Thursday, Al-Ahram reported that Mohamed Abdel Maqsoud, director of the Central Administration for Antiquities in Alexandria and Lower Egypt, announced that some 800 objects were missing from the Qantara-East warehouse. (As far as I've been able to determine, that list has not been published online.)

On his website yesterday, former Minister of Antiquities Zahi Hawass described the Qantara losses and summarized the depredations at other sites. No new Minister of Antiquities has yet been appointed to replace Hawass, who resigned that position but is still issuing statements on his website as if he were in charge.

Speaking of the vacuum at the top, Al-Ahram reported today that "an official letter, signed by top officials and legal consultants in the ministry of state for antiquities affairs, call for the Egypt's Prime Minister Essam Sharaf to appoint a Minister of Antiquities immediately." UNESCO's delegation had hoped to meet with the country's new antiquities officials during its visit. The lack of leadership can only be an impediment to concerted recovery and protection efforts.

Also on his website, Hawass has announced his intention to leave the country, at least temporarily, for various speaking engagements in the U.S. We'll see if those trips actually happen: He was unable to attend (for undisclosed reasons) his scheduled speaking gig at the 40th anniversary commemoration of the 1970 UNESCO Convention against illicit trafficking of cultural property (possibly because he could not officially represent his country's new regime; possibly because of unresolved accusations against him, which he alluded to in another post).

In other important late-breaking news from Egypt:
Al-Ahram today reports that former President Hosni Mubarak, is under house arrest, not in Saudi Arabia as had been rumored.

Damaged by earthquake: Ōsaki Hachiman Shrine, a designated Japanese National Treasure, Sendai

The Japanese Agency of Cultural Affairs' previous list of damage to cultural properties caused by the recent earthquake has now been updated. The total number of known instances of damage has risen from 246 to 353. For the first time, some of the affected sites have been specifically identified.

The four affected National Treasures (up from two on the previous list) are:

---Zuigan Temple (瑞巌寺, Zuigan-ji), Matsushima, Miyagi Prefecture. The earthquake caused some cracks in the walls.

---Ōsaki Hachiman Shrine (大崎八幡宮, Ōsaki Hachiman-gū), Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture. The earthquake broke the walls, the lacquering and the sculptures slightly.

---Amida Hall (阿弥陀堂, Amida-dō), Iwaki, Fukushima Prefecture. The earthquake broke the wall slightly.

---Buddha Hall of Seihaku Temple (清白寺仏殿, Seihaku-ji Butsuden), Yamanashi, Yamanashi Prefecture. The earthquake broke the ranma [carved wooden panel] (欄間).

According to the agency's report, the earthquake and tsunami "caused great damages around Matsushima." Sites around Matsushima that had been designated as Special Places of Scenic Beauty and were damaged during the disaster include: Shiogama (塩竃), Shichigahama (七ヶ浜), Rifu (利府), Matsushima (松島), Higashi-matsushima (東松島).

The number of known instances of damage to Important Cultural Properties has risen from 74 to 103.

In happier news, the Mori Art Museum in Tokyo has just announced that its new exhibitions French Window: Looking at Contemporary Art through the Marcel Duchamp Prize and MAM Project 014: Taguchi Yukihiro, postponed from their Mar. 18 opening date, will open tomorrow (to Aug. 28).

In an e-mailed message, the Mori wrote:

Some of the artworks comprising the "French Window" exhibition will not be shown at the beginning of the exhibition period. However, we are planning on adding more works, depending upon some circumstances.

Those "circumstances" may involve lenders' qualms. (The Mori does not possess a permanent collection.)

Fabergé Miniatures of the Imperial Coronation Regalia, St. Petersburg, C. Fabergé's Company. 1900, State Hermitage Museum

As reported last month by the NY Times' Carol Vogel and Clifford Levy, the attempt by an international organization of Orthodox Jews to reclaim books, manuscripts and archival materials held by two Russian public libraries has led to the refusal of Russian museums to send promised loans to U.S. exhibitions.

Vogel and Levy then wrote:

The four shows that stand to suffer in the coming months are "Cézanne's Card Players" and "Rooms With a View: The Open Window in the 19th Century" at the Met, and "Gauguin: Maker of Myth" and "Venice: Canaletto and His Rivals" at the National Gallery.

But another upcoming show could have more than just a few gaps to fill. "Treasures from the Hermitage: Russia's Crown Jewels" is scheduled to open May 20 at the Houston Museum of Natural Science.

According to that show's online description:

Houston will be the only venue for this fascinating and exclusive exhibition, which includes more than 150 stunning objects [including the Fabergé miniatures, above] selected from the Treasure Gallery of the State Hermitage Museum. Many of these objects have never before left Russia---and all may never leave again...

...or may never leave at all. As of this writing, however, tickets for the show are still on sale through the museum's website, at a hefty $28 for adults, $20 for childen and seniors.

Here's what Latha Thomas, the Houston museum's vice president for marketing and communications, told me yesterday when I asked whether the show will indeed go on:

While we have heard and read about the Chabad court case and heard rumors about delays, we do not have any official word from Russia as to whether this will affect our exhibition. We are currently working to open the show as we initially planned.

"Portrait of the Qianlong Emperor" (detail), Qianlong Period (1736-95), Palace Museum, Beijing

It's Asia Week in New York and Qianlong Week on CultureGrrl. Having just posted about the over-the-top price at Sotheby's for what bidders apparently believed to be a Qianlong vase, let's wander crosstown to the Metropolitan Museum's exhibition of over-the-top objects, The Emperor's Private Paradise: Treasures from the Forbidden City (to May 1).

We'll conclude this journey with a CultureGrrl Video starring Bonnie Burnham, president of the World Monuments Fund (WMF), the preservationist organization that, in a sense, provided the impetus for the one-time tour of the Qianlong Emperor's luxury goods. They have never before been publicly seen and are unlikely ever to leave the Forbidden City again.

Last October, when I was in Beijing as part of a general-interest (not art-oriented) tour of China, I was aware that I was seeing just a small fraction of the buildings in the Forbidden City, the sprawling compound of courtyards and buildings for China's imperial rulers.

With a few exceptions, what I did see were façades, not interiors:



I also knew that I was seeing a very small sampling of the Forbidden City's vast cultural riches. Here's one of the pieces that I did get to admire:


Octagonal Case with Gem-Inlaid Gold and Openwork Floral Design, Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), on view in the Forbidden City

I did briefly enter the world of the Qianlong Emperor, whose furnishings and decorative objects commissioned for his two-acre, 27-building Qianlong Garden (in the northeast corner of the Forbidden City) are the subject of the 90-object exhibition now at the Met.

My tour group paused at the Qianlong Emperor's Terrace for Gathering Dew:



We marveled at the astonishing forms of one of his five weirdly marvelous rockeries:



Described by the Met as "one of China's most extravagant monarchs," the Qianlong Emperor never actually used the sumptuous hideaway that he had meticulously designed as a retirement retreat.

On its website for the show (linked at the top), the Met examined the extravagance:

The costliest materials, including rare woods, semiprecious stones, cloisonné, gilt bronze, porcelain, and lacquer were employed to ornament every surface of this world....The space remained a virtual time capsule relatively untouched since imperial times.

An accomplished poet and calligrapher, the Qianlong Emperor was an eclectic aesthete who, from the evidence of the Met's show, favored designs and materials that pushed the limits of opulence and ornamentation.

A Sotheby's auction yesterday, grandly titled, "Informing the Eye of the Collector: Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art from J.T. Tai & Co.," achieved a strong $36.31 million, which, according to the auction house, "reflect[ed] the reverence for Tai's legendary connoisseurship and the electric atmosphere in the salesroom."

Not exactly.

When it came to Lot 120, the late New York dealer's "legendary connoisseurship" was called into question by (according to Sotheby's) "more than seven bidders," with the anonymous winner deciding that the 16¼-inch vase---which Sotheby's (presumably relying on Tai's records) had dated as probably 20th century and estimated at $800-1,200---was really worth $18 million, accounting for almost half the total of the 328-lot sale.

Even the Big Two auction houses sometimes get their estimates (along with the underlying identification of objects) astonishingly wrong. But this was one of the biggest whoppers that I've ever encountered. The fact that many bidders were willing to stake megabucks against Sotheby's considered assessment suggests that the auction house may well have missed what it ought to have caught.

Sotheby's gave this explanation in the post-sale press release:

The sale was led by An Unusual 'Famille Rose' and Gold Decorated Vase, Probably Republican Period, which sold for $18,002,500, having been estimated at $800/1,200. The vase was catalogued as 'Probably Republican' (early 20th century) and the estimate reflected this dating.

There was a healthy debate surrounding the age of the piece, with a number of collectors clearly feeling it was significantly earlier. In the end, more than seven bidders competed for the vase, which finally sold to an anonymous bidder on the telephone.

This morning, I asked the auction house: "What caused Sotheby's to misidentify the vase (if that was, indeed, what happened)?" I received this response from its press office:

Opinions about the date of the vase were divided and we reflected this in our cataloguing by dating it as Probably Republican.

What did the "more than seven" determined bidders believe it actually was?

Sotheby's own catalogue description (scroll down) gives us a hint:

A group of vases each bearing six-character Qianlong seal marks and of the period [1736-95], show decorative elements that are related to the unusual present example. Compare The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum. Porcelains of Cloisonne Enamel Decoration and Famille-Rose Decoration, Hong Kong, 1999, vol. 30, in particular the pear-shaped vase with the cobalt and gilt ground and the iron-red key band on the base, ibid., cat. no. 156, as well as the ruyi-scepter tasseled handles, ibid., cat. no. 118.

Qianlong seal marks? I've just been preparing a post, pegged to the current Asia Week in New York, about the current Qianlong Emperor show at the Met. Suddenly, my upcoming photo essay and CultureGrrl Video may have another level of timeliness!


The seal marks on the underside of the $18-million vase

UPDATE: Here's another astonishing auction result for a Qianlong vase, at a much higher price---£53.1 million. It happened at Bainbridges, a provincial British auction house, at a sale held four months ago. That vase had been estimated at £800,000 to £1.2 million.

Seiichi Kondo, Japan's Commissioner for Cultural Affairs

My attempt to get further information about the impact of Japan's disaster on museums and cultural sites resulted in my receiving by e-mail this document from Japan's Agency of Cultural Affairs: Damages of cultural properties of 2011 Tohoku - Pacific Ocean Earthquake.

As of Thursday, according to this list, there were some 246 instances of damage. The document breaks these down by types of cultural properties and sites, as well as by geographic area. What it does NOT do is identify the specific properties and sites that were impacted.

For example, it reports two "damages" to National Treasures" and 74 to Important Cultural Properties. I assume (but have not yet received confirmation) this means that 74 different Important Cultural Properties were impacted (not that multiple damages to one property were each counted separately towards the total of 74). I am seeking clarification and further information.

By digging around online, I learned that the city of Sendai, near the epicenter of the 9.0 earthquake, is home to the Miyagi Museum, with Japanese art---Meiji (1868-1912) to the present---as well as Western works:


Miyagi Museum of Art, Sendai

Sendai also has a City Museum that, at the time of the disaster, was hosting an exhibition that has become eerily resonant with the current situation.

Here's the museum's own description of that show:

Pompeii: Miracle of Ancient Rome and World Heritage Site

February 10 to May 8, 2011

In the year 79 A.D., the ancient city of Pompeii was buried in the cataclysmic volcanic eruption of Mt. Vesuvius. Though the city was destroyed, many artifacts of its culture and achievements were preserved in the ashes.

With the full cooperation of the Naples National Archaeological Museum, this exhibit features 250 valuable artifacts and art pieces from its collection. Of special interest are the collection of silver artifacts, shown outside of Italy for the first time, and the bathtub and water heating system excavated from a summer home on the outskirts of Pompeii as well as the mosaic art found on the floor section of the bathroom.

Next up on the temporary exhibition schedule was to have been a show of ukiyo-e prints from the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. And on Aug. 30, the museum was to open an exhibition celebrating its 50th anniversary---"Selected 100 Masterpieces from Sendai City Museum."

We can only hope...


Sendai City Museum

I have not yet gotten any information about possible damage to these or other museums in Japan. If and when I know more, you'll know more. If any CultureGrrl readers already know more, please contact me.

Celebrating its 15-year anniversary, Artnet magazine has unearthed a shard from my online past---an example of my "Visual Reality" columns from the time of Artnet's birth.

"Visual Reality," as described by Artnet mag's original and still-going-strong editor, Walter Robinson, "cast a skeptical and informed eye on the doings of the official art-museum world (an endeavor that carries on today, of course, in her CultureGrrl blog, easily the most professional of all the art blogs [emphasis added])."

Well thanks, Walter. Reasonable people may disagree about that last part. But "Visual Reality" was truly the prototype for what I'm doing here (except that 15 years ago, I was paid for it).

With no one having clicked my "Donate" button recently, I'm not feeling all that "professional" at the moment!

UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova

At last, the crisis of looting and damage to archaeological sites and museums in those Middle East nations that have been roiled by uprisings may receive some concerted international attention.

While international experts in cultural-property issues were meeting in at UNESCO's headquarters in Paris over the last two days (belatedly commemorating the 40th anniversary of the 1970 UNESCO Convention against illicit trafficking of cultural property), the United Nations agency also convened an emergency meeting of cultural-property organizations and experts to address the pressing need for cultural heritage protection in Egypt, Tunisia and Libya.

UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova stated:

To start with, expert missions will travel to Egypt and Tunisia in the coming days to make contact with the newly appointed personnel of the ministries of culture, assess the need for assistance, especially in the area of prevention of illicit trafficking, and to devise a comprehensive UNESCO Action Plan on the medium and long-term protection of cultural heritage.

Nancy Rosoff, co-curator of the Brooklyn Museum's "Tipi: Heritage of the Great Plains," in front of Lyle Heavy Runner's "Blackfeet Tipi," 2010, commissioned for the show

Early Rendering of Frank Gehry-designed Guggenheim Abu Dhabi

Human Rights Watch, which has long been critical of conditions for construction workers at the Gehry-designed Guggenheim and other projects on Abu Dhabi's Saadiyat Island, issued a statement today endorsing the announced boycott of the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi by a group of artists who are concerned about alleged workers' rights violations at the project.

HRW's Middle East director, Sarah Leah Whitson, declared:

If the Guggenheim and TDIC [Abu Dhabi's Tourism Development and Investment Company] fail to address the artists' concerns, the museum may become better known for exhibiting labor violations than art.

The TDIC has just issued a statement saying that it "fully respects and supports the artists' role in campaigning for this issue." It added:

TDIC recently announced that a new internationally recognized consultancy will be appointed to meet the growing scope of work needed to monitor the performance of contractors on Saadiyat. The appointed company will be announced by May 2011 and audit reports will be published on an annual basis.

Also, TDIC has in place a robust mechanism to ensure workers do not pay recruitment fees to work on Saadiyat. TDIC recently expanded this to include that contractors must reimburse workers for any recruitment fees they might have paid.

The artists' assertions raise the question of whether the "robust mechanism" for banning recruitment fees and the other written guidelines for safeguarding workers' rights are working in practice. Independent monitoring (not merely consultants appointed by the TDIC) is needed, in light of known past abuses.

But the Guggenheim, in a statement released today, calls that the artists "misinformed."

Here's the Guggenheim's statement in full:

The Guggenheim Foundation is firmly committed to working to protect the rights of individuals on the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi Museum site. Several very important steps have been taken over the past six months that demonstrate this commitment.

In September of 2010, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation and TDIC issued a public joint statement committing to provide key core rights and benefits to all workers involved in the construction of the museum. One of these benefits is the right of the workers to live in the construction village that TDIC has built on Saadiyat Island, which has set a high standard for workers' accommodations in the region. Guggenheim Foundation and Museum Director, Richard Armstrong, visited the village this fall.

In a demonstration of its ongoing dedication to ensuring the rights of workers, TDIC has recently taken two significant steps. The first is the decision to put in place what they have promised will be a robust independent monitoring program and to have the monitor issue annual public reports. The second is to contractually require all contractors to reimburse workers for any recruitment fees they have paid to agencies to obtain their jobs. This is an important safeguard intended to enable workers to keep all of the wages they earn.

While we share the artists' concern for the workers, we believe that, in light of the steady progress that has been made with respect to recruitment fees, the prompt payment of wages, the ability to retain passports, the provision of health insurance and good living accommodations and the imminent appointment of an independent monitor in May, their statement is misinformed. We believe that the Guggenheim Foundation's work with TDIC has been instrumental in bringing about this progress. We will continue to remain focused on this critical priority.

UPDATE: The text of the artists' petition is here.

First the inventory. Now, happily, some recoveries:

The Luxor Tmes reports [via] that seven statues and five necklaces (one gold, the others faience and coloured glass) that were missing from the Egyptian Museum have been recovered, and the alleged ringleader of the theft and two alleged accomplices, who were "offered" $50 million in a sting operation, were arrested, according to the Luxor Times. A shorter version of the story appears on Al-Ahram's website.

Nevine El-Aref of Al-Ahram also reports that the Ministry of Antiquities has released an inventory of 27 objects missing from the storehouse at Tel El-Faraein, "which houses thousands of objects from excavations carried out in different sites there."

The problem is, Al-Ahram doesn't provide a link to the list of the 27 missing objects and none of the other sites I have checked (including that of the Supreme Council of Antiquities) links to this "released" list either. I'll update this post if I get the list.

Left to Right in Abu Dhabi: Lee Tabler, CEO of Abu Dhabi's Tourism Development and Investment Company; Richard Armstrong, director, Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation; architect Frank Gehry; Juan Ignacio Vidarte, Guggenheim's chief officer for global strategies and director, Guggenheim Bilbao; Frederick Henry, former Guggenheim trustee

I know you're all waiting for tomorrow's NY Times special "Museums" section to hit the stands. (Pieces are already online, but strangely, when I hit the Museums Special Section link tonight at the bottom of the "Arts" page, I got some strangely familiar stories---the ones that appeared in last year's "Museums" section!) On Twitter, I found this year's link.

But there's fresh story on the Times' Arts homepage tonight that caught my eye and sparked my concern.

Nicolai Ouroussoff reports:

A group of more than 130 artists, including many prominent figures in the Middle Eastern art world, says it will boycott [my link, not his] the $800 million Guggenheim museum being built in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, unless conditions for the foreign laborers at the site are improved....The artists asked the Guggenheim to pressure the government to force employers to reimburse workers for recruitment fees and to appoint an independent monitor to ensure that international labor standards would be met during the museum's construction.

Wait a minute! What ever happened with the detailed Employment Practices Policy (EPP), signed last September by the Guggenheim and Abu Dhabi's Tourism Development and Investment Company (TDIC)? Ouroussoff doesn't mention that agreement in his piece.

The issues now being raised by the protesting artists were directly addressed in the summary of that EPP agreement. On the subject of "recruitment fees," that summary (on P. 2) states:

The contractor shall be solely liable for and shall pay all recruitment fees for an employee. No one involved in the construction of TDIC's projects shall utilise the service of any agent or agency charging an employee any recruitment fee.

Was all of this this just "lip service," as one of the protesting artists declared? One of the concerned artists is Emily Jacir, who two years ago had an exhibition at the Guggenheim.

Ouroussoff got hold by phone of Richard Armstrong, the Guggenheim's director, who is in Dubai. The Times' architecture critic learned this:

Mr. Armstrong said that the Guggenheim has been working with the development agency [TDIC] to address these issues, and last week the agency announced that it was strengthening regulations to make contractors reimburse recruitment fees, and that it was appointing an outside monitor to address workers' complaints.

Why is this still a work in progress, not an accomplished fact? This seems to be an issue that just won't go away.

UPDATE: More on this issue, including statements by the concerned parties, here.

Quarzite Head of an Amarna Princess, 7 cm. high, missing from Egyptian Museum
Photo from list published by Supreme Council on Antiquities

It's about time!

The website of Egypt's Supreme Council on Antiquities (which still lists Zahi Hawass as its "secretary general") has now posted a link to what it says is the final list, with (mostly grainy) photographs, of 54 objects missing from the Egyptian Museum, which was looted on Jan. 28, during the people's uprising in Tahrir Square.

Until now, the only other authoritative illustrated list was the much shorter one compiled, from the fragmentary information available, by the Penn Cultural Heritage Center at the University of Pennsylvania. Penn's list included photos of three possible candidates for the missing Amarna princess, now blurrily documented in the photo above.

After a week-long hiatus, Hawass has posted an entry today on his website, linking to the SCA's list and expressing his regret for being unable to attend the international conference in Paris celebrating (a little late) the 40th anniversary of the 1970 UNESCO Convention against illicit trafficking of cultural property. Hawass had been scheduled to speak today at that conference.

In other recent developments, the Egyptian newspaper Al-Masry Al-Youm describes the allegations against Hawass made to Egyptian prosecutors by Abdel Rahman al-Aidy, chairman of the Central Administration of Middle Egypt Antiquities, and Nour Eddin Abd al-Samad, director general of the Department of Archaeological Sites. The account also quotes Hawass' response to those allegations.

Nevine El-Aref of the Egyptian newspaper Al-Ahram reports that Tarek El-Awadi, the director of the Egyptian Museum, has called for the land occupied by the National Democratic Party's (NDP) building to be turned over to his institution for possible use as an open-air museum or as the site for a building to house gold Tutankhamun objects. The NDP building, adjacent to the museum, famously and frighteningly caught fire during the Egyptian uprising and may now be demolished. The museum is adjacent to that property, which "originally belonged to the Egyptian Museum," El-Awadi stated.

Leo Steinberg

With wide-ranging interests from the Renaissance to Rauschenberg, the art historian extraordinaire and Penn professor emeritus Leo Steinberg, dead at the age of 90, was as provocative and profane as he was erudite.

Ken Johnson has written the definitive obit for the NY Times. But I have a personal revelation: He almost died prematurely at my own hands (just kidding, sort of), after a long late-night phone interview on the subject of the putative "Michelangelo of Fifth Avenue."

The truth can now be told (and I doubt that Leo would regard this as an invasion of his posthumous privacy): Steinberg was the "highly distinguished art historian" (referred to in this CultureGrrl post) who had examined "The Young Archer" (now on loan from the French Government to the Metropolitan Museum) and declared that it had failed what I subsequently termed "the testicles test." (I guess it figures that the author of The Sexuality of Christ in Renaissance Art and in Modern Oblivion would be thus preoccupied.)

The reason I was never able to attribute this to him or use any of his more discreet comments from our conversation can be gleaned from this passage in my February 1996 article for the Wall Street Journal about the so-called discovery of a Michelangelo marble sculpture that had been hiding in plain sight:

The most decided detractor [of the purported Michelangelo] is Mr. Steinberg, art history professor emeritus at the University of Pennsylvania, who states flatly that Ms. [Kathleen Weil-Garris] Brandt's attribution is wrong. In response to a request for comment, Mr. Steinberg prepared an erudite, detailed, two-page statement dissecting the sculpture's anatomical anomalies, but he would only permit quotation in its entirety.

I knew that this wasn't going to fly with my then editor at the WSJ. (I wonder if I could now rummage through my files and find it!)

Steinberg had just spent about an hour giving me his brilliant insights and some delicious quotes, when he flatly declared that I couldn't use any of it. I never, ever let a source do that to me---tell me at the end of our conversation that the whole thing was off the record. But he was The Great Leo Steinberg, so what could I do? (Memo to everyone else: Don't even think of trying that!)

He was, as Johnson of the Times rightly observed, a "maverick" and "adventurous scholar and critic who loved to challenge the art world's reigning orthodoxies." As such, he had a co-conspiring fellow provocateur in the late James Beck of Columbia University.

In tandem and separately, they were feisty, inspired rebels.

Kevin Gover, director of the National Museum of the American Indian, in his office overlooking the Capitol
At left: Mateo Romero (Cochiti Pueblo), "Tewa, Tiwa, Towa," circa 1995, National Museum of the American Indian
In middle: David Bradley, "Indian Self Rule," lithograph, 1985, from Gover's personal collection
At right: Partial view of a pottery/ceramic jar by Hubert Candelario (San Felipe Pueblo),1994, NMAI

To my surprise, the Wall Street Journal is posting articles earlier than previously.

Already online is my piece for tomorrow's "Leisure & Arts" page---Shows that Defy Stereotypes---about installations of Native American Art at the Denver Art Museum, National Museum of the American Indian (New York and Washington) and Brooklyn Museum. I describe how museums are increasingly privileging contemporary artists and also soliciting the views of contemporary Native Americans in interpreting their heritage.

I thought I'd have a little more time to prepare for you the CultureGrrl Irreverent Photo Essay, complementing my serious piece. (Patience, artlings!)

For now, I'll tell you this:

If you think that the Smithsonian's "Hide/Seek" show was sensitive and provocative, just wait until you read about NMAI director Kevin Gover's plans for a complete reinstallation of the NMAI's main facility in Washington, which may begin in 2014.

It remains to be seen how his plan (which I describe at the end of the piece) will be received by Big Chief Boehner and the Republican and Democratic tribes who powwow at the Capitol (which is framed by the window of Gover's office).

Unlike Smithsonian Secretary G. Wayne Clough, Gover, a lawyer who was not previously a museum professional (but who collects, in a modest way, American Indian art), knew exactly what works were arrayed behind him when he posed for the above photo. (He was a little hesitant about having his photograph taken on Casual Friday, but earned my gratitude by allowing it!)

Tokyo National Museum

It's a bit early to worry about museums and cultural sites when the human costs are so high and the nuclear plants so imperiled. Nevertheless, I'm trying to get some answers.

All that I know so far is that museums in Tokyo---both the Mori Art Museum and the Tokyo National Museum---have closed temporarily to conserve electricity but say that they have not suffered serious damage.

The Tokyo National Museum, which hopes to reopen on Saturday (with reduced hours and only partial access), has announced on its website:

The museum has thoroughly inspected its exhibition rooms and storages, and fortunately, we have not suffered any serious damages to artworks, artifacts, and facilities.

The Mori, which has no collection and is only open when it is presenting special exhibitions (two of which were to open on Friday), today sent me this e-mailed message:

Out of the concerns for the power consumption caused by the earthquake and to ensure safety, Mori Art Museum has decided to postpone the scheduled opening of two exhibitions, "French Window: Looking at Contemporary Art through the Marcel Duchamp Prize" and "MAM Project 014: Taguchi Yukihiro" until further notice.

Also in accordance, some of the scheduled exhibition-related programs and events are to be cancelled. The new dates for the exhibition opening and related programs/events will be announced once determined.

The Museum would like to announce that there have been no human injuries, no damages to the facilities and artworks.

New York's Japan Society, which is continuing its programs as planned (including its Bye Bye Kitty!!! contemporary art exhibition, opening Friday and curated by the Mori's founding director, David Elliott), has posted on its website some very helpful information about how to send relief donations and how to find and contact people in Japan.

After 9/11, my family had settled on a post-disaster meeting place outside the New York metropolitan area. But now it seems that the best place to reunite is online.

UPDATE: Philippa Polskin, president of Ruder Finn Arts & Communications, who has done PR work for the Miho Museum, tells me:

From what I understand, the Miho was untouched, because it is in Shigaraki, outside of Kyoto. However, many members of the parent organization did live in the affected area and they are still trying to assess what the losses have been among members and friends.

Whenever I visit Philadelphia (as I did late last month), I indulge my morbid fascination for the slow-motion death of a great single-collector facility, to be interred at the construction site of the new home for the Barnes Foundation on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, scheduled to open in late spring of next year.

Construction is now so far along that, notwithstanding the new desperation lawsuit by opponents to the Barnes' move from its original home in Merion, there's no tearing this thing down. We can only hope that they do a decent job of building it.

Here's my photo of the mega-Barnes' most distinctive (some would say obtrusive) feature, designed by architects Tod Williams and Billie Tsien---a jutting light box looming over the facility (which at the moment is merely a frame that looks like an Olympic diving board):



Here's what that feature may ultimately look like, as depicted in a rendering by the architects. (This is a screen shot from my CultureGrrl Video of the architects' presentation to the Philadelphia Arts Commission, which took place more than a year ago):



Here's a recent view of the entire project, at dusk, from the Barnes' webcam. You can see how the part of the building that will replicate the original Barnes Foundation's layout---the dark rectangle to the left---is enveloped and dwarfed by the new pavilion for special exhibitions, classrooms, auditorium and visitor amenities. The Barnes Collection galleries account for some 12,000 square feet of this 93,000-square-foot building:



Here's an update on the construction progress, sent to me by Barnes spokesperson Andrew Stewart:

The gallery building which will house the permanent collection should be finished by the end of this summer. At the moment, the construction team is putting up the stone all around the exterior of the building. Inside the gallery building, they are plastering the walls and finishing installing the windows and clerestory on the second floor. The steel framing was completed back in January.

Good luck to the stubbornly persistent opponents of the move, but their latest court filing is an attempt to close the Barnes door after the horse has escaped to Philadelphia. Recognizing that there's no stopping this well-advanced construction, one of the litigants has futilely suggested that the facility be repurposed as a museum for contemporary art, craft and design---MAD on the Parkway?

There's one surprise petitioner among the litigants, who are otherwise mostly neighbors of the old Barnes and/or members of Friends of the Barnes and Barnes Watch (two ad hoc groups that are fighting the move). The wild card is veteran New York dealer Richard Feigen, a former member of the Barnes' art advisory committee, who had testified at the original trial about the possibility of monetizing works that were not part of the core collection at the Barnes' main facility. He has been a vocal critic of the move from the beginning.

The new legal petition is mostly a rehash of arguments that were already rejected by Judge Stanley Ott of Montgomery County Orphans' Court the last time the opponents tried to reopen the case (and were rebuffed due to lack of legal standing). Their one new idea is that "the Attorney General, without disclosure to the court, was involved in forcing the change of the Barnes board to allow the transfer of the art collection from Lower Merion to Philadelphia. The Attorney General absolutely violated his fiduciary duties by taking an improper role and without advising this Honorable Court of that role."

True enough. This argument is based on the then Attorney General's and then Governor's shocking did-they-really-say-that moment (detailed by me in this post), which was captured in filmmaker Don Argott's Barnes exposé, "The Art of the Steal."

But Judge Ott made it clear in his initial ruling (which I strongly disagree with) that he deemed the move to be the most viable, least drastic solution to saving the financially beleaguered Barnes, notwithstanding what he regarded as the shockingly inadequate job done by the Attorney General's office in representing the people's and founder Albert Barnes' interests.

The new argument raised by the petitioners might be cause for an investigation of the former AG's divided loyalties and possible misdeeds. But I suspect that none of this would, at this late hour, have any effect in halting the project.

As Stewart of the Barnes put it (having undoubtedly consulted with the lawyers):

The latest filing raises no new material facts or allegations presenting issues that would otherwise undermine the integrity or validity of the Orphans' Court's previous analysis on the merits of the case and the order permitting the move of the collection.

Responding to the new petition, the court has directed the Barnes to "show cause why the matter should not be reopened." Dust off those old briefs for the court appearance next Friday.

As for the amount raised thus far towards the Barnes' $200-million goal, Stewart told me, "We have not released any new details recently"---not a good sign. With projected building costs having escalated from $100 million to $150 million, the Barnes had lowered its goal for its endowment from $100 million to $50 million---also not a good sign. Stewart did tell me that some $47.45 million in state funds have thus far been committed to the project. Fundraising had previously been a slow-go.

While the mega-Barnes takes shape, you should pay you final respects to Dr. Barnes' Barnes and enjoy its intimacy while you still can: July 3 is the final day on which you can admire at least a portion of the original galleries. (Too late for the second floor, however: It's already closed.)

UPDATE: In an LA Times opinion piece dated next Sunday (Mar. 13) but online now, Tom Freudenheim and Robert Zaller question whether the new Barnes can "be fiscally viable in Philadelphia."

Janet Landay, former executive director, Association of Art Museum Directors

While we're on the subject of resignations, there's been another important abdication of perhaps more immediate relevance to CultureGrrl's core professional audience---the abrupt, unexplained departure of Janet Landay from the Association of Art Museum Directors, after two years as its executive director.

I don't know why Landay, who arrived with impressive credentials, suddenly left. In her Farewell to Janet statement released last month, the association's current president, Kaywin Feldman of the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, gave no explanation beyond the usual "to pursue new challenges" bromide.

What I do know is that there was a troubling series of confused, misguided, inadequate or downright inaccurate written statements emanating from AAMD on hot-button topics during Landay's tenure. That wouldn't happen if there were careful review by an executive committee of AAMD leaders, with substantial input from a well-informed, hands-on executive director, expertly serving the functions of policy advisor, fact-checker, copy editor and spokesperson.

AAMD sometimes picks the most experienced, preeminent museum leaders for its rotating president's spot; other times, it hands over that position to directors with a less substantial track record and less policy acumen. This variability at the top is part of AAMD's problem. I've dealt with a whole bunch of its presidents, and I know.

AAMD presidents come and go every year or two. But the executive director, as chief administrator and spokesperson, should be the constant guiding force, with the thorough grounding in museum policy and practice to assure that when the members speak with one voice, they do so wisely and accurately.

I certainly had my adversarial moments with Landay's predecessor, Mimi Gaudieri, who for 35 years was the unfailing voice of AAMD. Whatever our differences, I knew that Mimi communicated with the authority that comes from an in-depth knowledge of the field and a complete understanding of the museum directors' philosophy, goals and interests.

Getting almost 200 museum directors to agree on policy and public pronouncements is like herding cats. That's why so many of AAMD's statements seem so cautious and watered down by the time they reach its website. To its credit, AAMD in recent years has made an effort (however compromised by gaffes) to take more forceful positions on the important issues and controversies of the day.

A highly respected, deeply experienced president, guided by an energetic, perceptive, articulate executive director, could do much to hone the association's message and its enhance its clout.

Speaking of respect, experience and strong statements, if readers don't take a forceful position on my "Donate" button, I may have to resign from CultureGrrl and apply for an open executive director's position. (Just kidding about the last part!)

Metropolitan Opera music director James Levine: Should he throw in the towel?

In the wake of conductor James Levine's announcement that he would to resign the music directorship of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Justin Davidson of New York magazine declared that the maestro should do the same at the Metropolitan Opera.

Davidson wrote:

The time has come to make him conductor laureate for life and hand the keys [as music director] to someone else.

Not so fast!

If the NY Times' reviews of Levine's recent performances in New York are any indication, his conducting, when he does make it to the podium, is still wondrously energetic and the results every bit as "sumptuous" (in Allan Kozinn's words) and "majestic, vibrant and insightful" (in Anthony Tommasini's words) as ever.

He undoubtedly needs more rest and rehabilitation, which he may now be able to get, thanks to the less punishing schedule that he will have by dropping his Boston commitment. Whether this will work out remains to be seen. But until we know, it's premature to take away his keys, especially given the galvanizing effect on musicians, singers and audiences that he has had at the Met for all the 40 years since his debut at the house. He deserves a chance to make this work.

At the press conference introducing the Met's 2011-2012 season on Feb. 16, two weeks before the Boston announcement, Peter Gelb, the Met's general manager, did his best to emphasize the maestro's vigor:

He conducted "Don Pasquale." Last night, he conducted a new production of "The Bartered Bride" at Juilliard....Before the season will have concluded, he will have also conducted performances of "Trovatore," one of which will be transmitted world via HD; a revival of "Wozzeck," and our new production of "Walküre," before taking the Met on a three-week tour of Japan. We have worked together on he plans for next season, and we are planning together far into the future. And hopefully that should save at least one question from the Q&A.

Now there is new cause for questions, given his subsequent performance cancellations and evidence that his recovery from his various ailments may not be as complete as he had hoped.

When one journalist asked him at the press conference why he had not stepped up for his bows after the performance at Juilliard of "The Bartered Bride," Levine replied:

I'm not coming up onstage all the time now because I'm finding the one thing which is still difficult for me is, after I do a performance and I've been sitting in the chair all night, the first couple of minutes of walking is hard on my back, and especially walking up the stairs quickly. So on nights when I work harder, ...if I feel at the end that I'm better off to stay put, I wave to the public from the place where I am. I feel very good when I'm in whatever position I'm in, but the first minute or two of walking is a little different every day.

Even without the Boston burden, Levine's schedule---especially the three-week stint in Japan---sounds pretty grueling. He needs to pace himself, perhaps devoting more time to the music directorship and a bit less to conducting, all the while working to groom a suitable heir apparent and to attract more A-list guest conductors.

For now, Davidson's abrupt dismissal of Levine (not to mention his unwise wisecrack that Levine "looks as if he spent his waking hours manipulating a joystick rather than wielding a conductor's baton") is insensitive, inappropriate and, I hope, premature.

Here's a more suitable response to the maestro's superlative artistry.

That said, if he misses the "Die Walküre" performance that I've got tickets for, I may become less sympathetic!

As for Levine's replacement at Boston, I was interested to see Jeremy Eichler of the Boston Globe say this today:

Among the pack of young would-be contenders, there is considerable buzz at the moment around [Andris] Nelsons, a Latvian conductor who, at 32, currently leads the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra.

I was in the audience at the NY Philharmonic recently, for what Eichler called Anders' "lavishly praised debut" with the orchestra. I had never heard him before, and wondered where he had been all my life. Thanks to his absolute rapport with the exquisitely sensitive (and, in the last movement, manically playful) young soloist, Jonathan Biss, he delivered an absolutely revelatory performance of a work that I've heard a million times before, Beethoven's Third Piano Concerto. (The Shostakovich Fifth Symphony was also on the program.)

Can Nelsons do Boston AND Birmingham?

One (as yet not publicly unidentified) of these three sandstone heads of an Amarna princess has been reported as missing from the Egyptian Museum.
Photo from Antiquities Missing from Egypt report, Penn Cultural Heritage Center

Partially filling the information vacuum about exactly what objects have gone missing during the chaotic situation in Egypt, the Penn Cultural Heritage Center at the University of Pennsylvania has published a list with photographs of objects that have been officially reported as missing by Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities.

The value-added is that these objects are now compiled in one place (rather than in Zahi Hawass' partial, fragmentary reports), along with descriptions, photographs (where possible) and bibliographic data, provided by the Penn Center's own research.

In addition, two very helpful CultureGrrl readers have informed me that the mystery name (which I published yesterday in Arabic) for the seventh reported candidate to replace Hawass as Egypt's head of antiquities is Hassan Salim.

I've been on-topic for way too long. Let's now wander completely off-topic.

The resignatons of Hawass and Levine notwithstanding, to me the most important news event of last week was the designation of CultureDaughter as a PhD-to-be (to become official at May graduation). On Thursday, she presented an enthusiastically acclaimed defense of her doctoral dissertation, entitled (take deep breath):

Enhanced Propagation Modeling of Directional Aviation Noise: A Hybrid Parabolic Equation---Fast Field Program Method

Huh??? That a daughter of mine could have written such a thing (and that a report with such an unwieldy headline could have been judged by one of her committee members as "one of the best written" dissertations that he's ever seen) defies motherly comprehension.

I'm inordinately proud, of course, as well as extremely grateful that I wasn't asked for any editorial guidance on this over-my-head project. I'm also cautiously hopeful that my daughter'deep understanding of aviation noise will do something to mitigate the buzz of JFK flights that have recently been rerouted to pass over my apartment's terrace overlooking the Hudson River.

Am I allowed to take a little credit for the "best written" part? I relentlessly supplemented our local schools' insufficient writing instruction by tearing apart what she and my son (also now a good writer) produced. My constant parental refrains were: "Writing is power" and "Go clean your room!"

Notwithstanding the school system's writing deficiencies, its music and drama instruction was first rate, as Lea Michele, the star of "Glee," can attest. She got her start as Lili in the high school production of "Carnival" that I attended.

Does all this mean that I now need to refer to our family's ranking scholar as "Dr. CultureDaughter"?

Let the acoustic engineer job search begin. Her first interview, this Wednesday, relates not to the skies but to the seas---underwater acoustics. (Who knew?) Alas, I have thus far failed to persuade her to address the more pressing acoustic needs of Avery Fisher Hall.

Abu Sir, where, according to Zahi Hawass, the tomb of Petah-Shepses has been damaged
Photo from Blue Shield's report on Egyptian archaeological sites

CultureGrrl, at the risk of being tedious, has lately become "all Egypt, all the time." But I can't seem to avert my eyes from this archaeological disaster.

In yesterday's post on his website, Zahi Hawass, Egypt's former Minister of Antiquities (who now declares he is "still in my office and will be until the government has announced my successor"), published the disjointed transcript of an "interview" conducted by an unidentified questioner (his alter ego?). It provides an outlet for his rambling musings about the escalated, unchecked pillaging at Egypt's archaeological sites (which would be enough to unhinge anyone).

He also tries once again to justify his inexplicable assertion, after the break-in at the Egyptian Museum, that no objects were missing. Most problematically, he rants against those who have accused him of (in his own words) "stealing antiquities and doing other illegal things all of the time." He does not name his tormentors, but in at least one instance---the "university professor who was the Antiquities Director for almost six years before me"---his intended target is easily identifiable.

Like Charlie Sheen, Hawass seems to dig himself into a deeper pit every time he seeks to extricate himself from a reputational sinkhole. As any prudent legal advisor would tell him, his response to criminal accusations should be confined to a succinct denial of guilt. Any further response, if necessary, should be left to the lawyers.

I have largely refrained from publishing the details of the charges swirling around Hawass (which are ascertainable online), because, from my distant vantage point, it's impossible to evaluate the mud being slung by both sides in this brawl. I don't want to be a mouthpiece for unsubstantiated, possibly unprovable charges. If these matters ever get to the point of an officially announced investigation or a court case, I'll report further.

But it might never get that far: For the first time, Hawass indicated that he might leave Egypt (as I had recently predicted might happen). In yesterday's above-linked post, he wrote:

At the meeting of the Egyptian cabinet yesterday I had my speech prepared already and I said: "I cannot stay in Egypt [emphasis added] and see antiquities being stolen when I cannot do anything to stop it!" This situation is not for me!

What's uncertain, if the accusations have any substance, is whether he would be allowed to leave.

In his latest post, Hawass discloses further horrific details about the antiquities pillaging that has become rife in his homeland. Back on Feb. 4, I provided the first news report of the looting, which came from written revelations by a firsthand source, at a time when Hawass steadfastly maintained that the nation's archaeological sites were secure.

Today, Hawass laments:

Almost every day...there are attacks on archaeological heritage sites all over Egypt. Some of these areas have not been excavated yet, but all of them contain the remains of our ancient culture and heritage.

And in late-breaking news, Nevine El-Aref of the Egyptian newspaper El Ahram reports:

Egyptian archaeologists managed to keep antiquities independent from the Ministry of Culture [now headed by Mohamed Abdel-Moneim El-Sawy, an advertising executive whose father once held the culture post]. Egypt's newly appointed Prime Minister Essam Sharaf agreed to keep the Ministry of Antiquities an independent body among the cabinet echelon and separate it from the Ministry of Culture.

El Ahram noted that this decision came after a demonstration by "hundreds of Egyptian archaeologists" who demanded an independent ministry.

One of the participants in that demonstration, Nicole Hansen, posted this today on Facebook:

We archaeologists gathered at the Egyptian Museum at 10 a.m. and then marched to the Council of Ministers and stayed outside protesting until the Prime Minister came down at about 1:30 p.m. and promised us the Ministry of Antiquities would stay an independent ministry.

UPDATE: More late-breaking news---Emad Abou-Ghazi has been named as the new Minister of Culture. In today's El Ahram article announcing his appointment, Sayed Mahmoud reports:

Abou-Ghazi will also be responsible for protecting archaeological sites recently under threat of looting.

That's a heavy responsibility. We can only hope he's up to the task.

UPDATE 2: Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities will reportedly hold a referendum on Mar. 18 to help determine who should become its new head. (That person would also hold the title of Minister of Antiquities.) Sarah Parcak, Egyptology Professor at the University of Alabama, posting on the Facebook page of Restore + Save the Egyptian Museum! has published a list, transliterated from Arabic, that names six of the seven people who she says are in contention for the post. The one not included in her transliterated list (but which IS included on the Arabic list) is rendered in English by Google Translate as "Dr. Good Sound." In Arabic (can anyone help with this?) it's د.حسن سليم

UPDATE on the update: Two very helpful CultureGrrl readers have informed me that the mystery name is "Hassan Salim."

De Morgan storage facility at Dahshur, site of a Metropolitan Museum expedition
Photo from Blue Shield's report on Egyptian archaeological sites

A joint statement on the "alarming picture on the state of antiquities and cultural sites" in Egypt was issued yesterday by the Association of Art Museum Directors and the Archaeological Institute of America. But it misses two crucially important points.

AAMD and AiA have "call[ed] on Egyptian authorities, even in these unsettled times, to do what they can [emphasis added] to protect the country's irreplaceable archaeological and cultural materials."

But "what they can" has clearly proven insufficient. Urgently needed is outside help in securing the archaeological sites (not just in providing "professional support to...identify and reclaim missing objects," as the two organizations have offered).

I had asked the Metropolitan Museum, whose director Tom Campbell issued a statement on Egypt on Thursday, whether it knew of any specific action being undertaken by the international community to organize protection for these sites. The answer was: "Not yet." As for the security of the Middle Kingdom Pyramid sites at Dahshur and Lisht that Met archaeologists have been working on, the museum's spokesperson, Elyse Topalian, told me: "We are in constant contact with the local antiquity inspectors, who are doing a heroic job in safeguarding and reporting back."

The joint statement of AAMD and AiA urges the international museum and archaeological communities "to alert the appropriate international authorities and customs officials if they believe they have information regarding objects recently stolen from Egypt."

Good plan. But before this can happen, Egypt needs to compile and widely disseminate as thorough an accounting as possible of exactly what is known to be missing. Public disclosure has thus far been fragmentary, incomplete and lacking photographic documentation.

In this regard, Kate Phizackerley in her News from the Valley of the Kings blog writes:

We still do not have photographs of the items which the [Egyptian] museum has confirmed stolen. That is critical in stopping the thieves escaping the country and they should have been published immediately. For me, not publishing photos of these items and the false doors reported stolen from Saqqara is far more reprehensible than the lapses of security in the first place.

Phizackerley also observes:

Egyptologists are likely to find it hard to believe that Tutankhamun statues were not immediately spotted as missing when there was a broken base on the floor, and question Hawass' initial assertions that nothing was stolen [from the Egyptian Museum]. The same applies to the other premier items whose cabinets were smashed: curators tend to know their collections intimately and I think most curators would spot that a star item was missing pretty quickly.

Zahi Hawass

Maybe my headline yesterday should have read:

Zahi Hawass Resigns (or maybe not)

CNN today reports [via]:

Egypt's antiquities minister, Zahi Hawass, said Friday he plans to step down to protest police inaction as the country's ancient treasures are being looted and vandalized....

Hawass said he has not resigned yet but will if asked by new Prime Minister Essam Sharaf. Sharaf...is in the process of forming a new Cabinet. Hawass said he does not intend to be a part of it.

"I have no interest in doing that at all," he said.

These mixed messages, especially in light of the controversy swirling around Hawass, sound a bit like, "You can't fire me. I quit!"

Instead of protesting police inaction, Hawass should have proactively sought help from international organizations that might have provided more effective assistance.

In this regard, Thomas Campbell, director of the Metropolitan Museum, issued a statement yesterday that concluded:

The world cannot sit by [emphasis added] and permit unchecked anarchy to jeopardize the cultural heritage of one of the world's oldest, greatest, and most inspiring civilizations. We echo the voices of all concerned citizens of the globe in imploring Egypt's new government authorities, in building the nation's future, to protect its precious past. Action needs to be taken immediately.

He doesn't specify what form that action should take. I have a query in to the Met. Perhaps we shall soon learn more.

Close upon yesterday's release by Hawass of a far more extensive list of archaeological site depredations than had previously been acknowledged, Judith Dobrzynski on her Real Clear Arts posted another list, which had been leaked to her, of additional objects said to be missing from the Egyptian Museum. Judith noted that she was unable to confirm the accuracy of list, but stated that it came "through a chain of reliable sources." Margaret Maitland in her Eloquent Peasant blog (herself also a usually reliable source) wrote that she had "heard from other channels that the source [of the list] is trustworthy."

But a commenter on Maitland's post, self-identified only as "A.H.," criticized the list as "unsourced" and "unsubstantiated" and added:

I've seen that email with the list, Margaret, and it is so "reliable" [my quotation marks, not the writer's] it accuses America and the National Geographic of having a hand in the looting. It is such a "reliable source" [again my quotes] that the person doesn't give his or her name. It was clearly written by someone with a grudge.

That comment, also anonymous, may well have been written by a Hawass adherent.

Whatever the reliability of that list, the ham-fisted handling of the depredations inside the Egyptian Museum joins a long list of Zahi Hawass self-contradictions: In his Feb. 12 report on objects missing from the museum, he described it as the database department's "report on the inventory of objects." He said nothing about that report's being merely preliminary. On Feb. 23 he reported for the first time that "the museum's collections management and documentation team continues to work with the curators to complete their inventory, so that we can finalize the list of missing objects and concentrate on getting everything back as soon as possible."

And now we are getting indications that more missing objects may indeed have been identified, but are not being officially announced. If that's the case, there is no excuse for withholding that important information. The public and the Egyptology community need to know.

As I've repeatedly asserted, we need to stop the rumors and discourage possible illicit trade with the authoritative publication of a complete list of missing objects with high-quality photos. This needs to happen not some time in the future but yesterday.

And whatever the veracity or lack thereof of the various charges leveled against Hawass during this difficult period of governmental transition, Egypt needs someone of greater candor, credibility and accountability to take charge of its tragic antiquities mess.

Happier Days: Zahi Hawass at the Valley of the Kings
Photo: Supreme Council of Antiquities

The NY Times this afternoon confirmed that Zahi Hawass, Egypt's long-time head of antiquities, has stepped down.

As I indicated yesterday, his motivation is probably more than his stated dismay at unchecked looting. His probably more compelling concerns were evidenced by his using the occasion of his phone interview today with the Times' Kate Taylor to blast "colleagues who have criticized him, including one who has accused him of smuggling antiquities." (My guess is that Kate thought to ask him about that accusation after reading yesterday's CultureGrrl report.)

As I learned from an AP report by Christopher Torchia, which I came across after I posted yesterday, Hawass was also under increasing pressure to resign due to protests on Monday by archaeologists who called him "a 'showman' and publicity hound with little regard for thousands of archaeology students who have been unable to find work in their field," in Torchia's words.

Hawass started today with some belated online transparency---a new litany of damage done to archaeological sites, including "a magazine of Metropolitan Museum of Art's expedition in Dahshur, known as De Morgan." We've come a long, sad way from his original blanket assurances about the security of ancient sites.

My guess is that we may soon see yet another disconnect between Hawass' misleading assertions and reality. He had previously written (scroll down):

I cannot leave the country and live in any other part of the world. I want to die in the sands of Egypt.

With many close connections in the West, he may prefer to avoid possible investigations and try to find other outlets for his talents as a popularizer of ancient Egyptian culture. Whoever is in charge now in Egypt (do we know?) should now admit that outside help is desperately needed and call in those who have offered to help protect the country's important archaeological sites.

In that regard, Sarah Parcak, a commenter on the Facebook page Restore + Save the Egyptian Museum!, today noted:

I can inform you that Blue Shield, UNESCO, the Carabinieri, etc have all offered their help, publicly and privately. The Egyptian govenment (i.e., Dr. Zahi), needed to submit a formal request for help, which they refused or were unwilling to do. They are all waiting and standing by to give whatever assistance is needed. Until that happens, they can only stand by.

Similarly, Margaret Maitland of the Eloquent Peasant blog writes:

There is now a petition on Facebook [note from CultureGrrl: a better link is here] urging the transitional government to provide improved site security. Perhaps even the numerous unemployed archaeologists who were recently involved in protests outside the Ministry of Antiquities could be recruited in protection efforts. Whether outside help will be called in from international organizations such as UNESCO or Blue Shield remains to be seen.

Whatever action is taken by the transitional Egyptian government clearly cannot come too soon.

Music director James Levine, left, and general manager Peter Gelb at last month's press conference on the Metropolitan Opera's new season

While this blog focuses primarily on the visual arts, it's no secret that I'm an ardent operaphile and, especially, a Levine lover. I wasn't around for opera's previous Golden Ages, but for me, the era when music director James Levine indefatigably conducted a lion's share of Metropolitan Opera's performances were the glorious Golden Age of opera in New York.

Those days are now gone. Even though Levine announced yesterday that he will be leaving his gig as music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, his continuing health issues will likely limit the amount of time and energy he can bring to the Met.

Notwithstanding Levine's assertion at last month's Metropolitan Opera 2011-2012 Season press conference that "the conducting roster is better than it's even been," I've observed that too many performances are led by B-listers. The vacuum left when Levine started splitting his time between the Met and his recent music director's gig at the Boston Symphony Orchestra has never, for me, been adequately filled.

That said, one of the most glorious evenings I've ever spent at the opera occurred just last month, at the critically acclaimed production of "Nixon in China"---a definitive performance (which had better be made available on CD and/or DVD!) of a profound and moving modern masterpiece, brilliantly conducted by its composer, John Adams. This opera, greeted with roars of approval from the reputedly conservative Met Opera audience, deserves many more hearings. But the company that has brought back for a second season an obscure Rossini opera, "Armida" (as a vehicle for soprano-diva Renée Fleming) did not see fit to send Nixon back to China next season.

Since the Met has had a notoriously hard time financially, due in part to ambitiously expensive new productions under general manager Peter Gelb, I asked how the bottom line is doing. Gelb replied that contributions are up, but that for more information, I should view the annual report online.

This was not particularly helpful, since the most recent online annual report was for the fiscal year ending July 31, 2009, when operating expenses exceeded operating revenues by a whopping $112.6 million, a slight improvement from the previous year's $115.4 million deficit. The annual report fiscal 2010 is not yet posted.

I also asked about the the opera house's monumental Chagall murals, which two years ago were put up as collateral for a loan. Gelb began by assuring me that there was other collateral as well, (which did not particularly comfort me). He then added that the Met was not going to lose its Chagalls. (We can only hope.)

Below are two video excerpts from the Met's press conference. (Please excuse some static, due to my clumsiness with the camera.) First, Levine assesses the artistic health of the house, noting that "the whole difficulty of running an opera house...is in keeping the various elements in the right balance with one another" (as we all hope he will now be able to do in his own previously over-extended professional life). Then Gelb discusses the controversially radical rethinking of some productions during his tenure.



I look forward with both anticipation and trepidation to viewing Robert Lepage's new production of Die Walküre, which Levine (fingers crossed) is scheduled to conduct. After my experience at "Damnation of Faust." I'm dubious about anything Lepage (notwithstanding Anthony Tommasini's glowing review in today's NY Times of the director's Brooklyn Academy of Music production of Stravinsky's "The Nightingale").

When are they going to bring back William Kentridge?

Egyptian Antiquities Minister Zahi Hawass with King Tut
Photo: Stephanie Sakoutis

Kate Taylor of the NY Times reported online yesterday that Zahi Hawass, Egypt's antiquities minister, is "considering resigning." Taylor suggests that his reason has to do with recent additional looting (including break-ins Monday at two warehouses near the pyramids of Giza), which led him to conclude that "his department was unable to protect Egypt's historic sites and artifacts."

But as with the many previous contradictions between Hawass' original unequivocal assertions and what later proved to be a very different reality, there may be other more pressing reasons why Hawass may be thinking of leaving. Notwithstanding his assertions that he was in the streets with the protesters, he was closely associated with ousted President Hosni Mubarak and had argued (scroll to bottom) that "we need Mubarak to stay and make the transition." There have been many calls for Hawass to step down.

Another reason why he might relinquish his post may be inferred from oblique comments by Hawass in this Feb. 22 post on his website, in which he stated:

Throughout this ordeal, there have been people who have been completely dishonest, and have tried, through their statements, to make the situation worse, in some cases by accusing me (in vague terms) of various inappropriate or even illegal behaviors. Of course, as even these people themselves know, none of these accusations has any basis in reality....I have written to Egypt's attorney general, asking him to look into some of the false accusations that have been made against me.

Some sense of the allegations that he may be up against are included in a short article published on Feb. 22 by the Egyptian newspaper El Ahram. Nevine El-Aref reported:

Zahi Hawass, minister of antiquities, has sent a report to the Prosecutor-General Abdel Meguid Mahmoud after allegations were published against him in Al-Wafd newspaper. He has been accused of smuggling Egypt's antiquities on behalf of former president Hosni Mubarak's family. The newspaper quoted the accusations of archaeologist Nour Abdel Samad.

The archaeologist making these charges may himself be a dubious source, as El Ahram seems to suggest. A rough translation of what appear to be his rambling comments about Hawass can be found here.

In a post on the website of Science magazine, Andrew Lawler reports on other accusations Hawass may be dealing with.

One thing seems certain: If Hawass wants to recover the objects missing from the Egyptian Museum, he's doing an inexplicably inadequate job of assisting in this effort. Back on Feb. 13, I wrote (scroll to bottom):

The Egyptian Museum's most urgent priority, aside from assuring the security of what remains within, must be to post and widely circulate high-quality images of what's missing, along with information about where sightings of this stolen property should be reported.

My call for dissemination of information has now been joined by Margaret Maitland, whose Eloquent Peasant blog has been the go-to source for updates on the Egyptian antiquities situation. On Saturday, Maitland wrote:

It is now two weeks since it was announced that a number of objects were missing from the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, and a month has passed since the actual break in when the objects taken. However, even though an official list of missing items was released, because of a lack of photos, inventory numbers, or detailed information, we still don't actually know precisely what's missing. It is possible that this information could be valuable in stopping the objects from leaving the country or being sold....

As of yet, the statue of Nefertiti that was stolen has still not been identified and we are not sure which Amarna princess head is missing. I have been checking a number of publications for information about these pieces and have still found nothing.

Riddled with self-contradictions, deliberately or incompetently misleading reports, and dangerous lack of transparency, what and I had previously described as Hawass' "flawed crisis response" is spiraling towards a failed crisis response. The danger for antiquities, as for the rest of the country, is that a power vacuum could make a precarious situation even worse.

UPDATE: The Talking Pyramids blog has more details on the looting  near Giza and tellingly notes that Hawass had previously rejected offers of international assistance to protect archaeological sites during the Egyptian crisis, saying that no help was needed.

Yesterday and today were Museums Advocacy Day. (Maybe they should have made "Museums" singular and "Day" plural.)

Museum devotees gathered in Washington to urge their Congressmen to support appropriations benefiting the nation's cultural institutions. This effort had particularly urgency this year, given the threatened cuts to funding during this time of fiscal austerity.

There's a whole #MuseumsAdvocacy thing going on now, where the twitterati are singing the praises of museums.

More importantly, the website of the American Association of Museums makes it easy for you to send to your legislative representatives pre-composed letters (which you can preview and personalize), by filling in your contact information.

On a more ceremonial note, President Obama will award 10 National Medals of Arts at the White House tomorrow. Representing the visual arts: sculptor Mark di Suvero (who is married to a New York City politico, Commissioner of Cultural Affairs Kate Levin).

Here's the official citation:

Mark di Suvero for his achievements as one of the most prominent American artists to emerge from the Abstract Expressionist era. Exhibited throughout the world, Mr. di Suvero's exemplary sculptures depict a strong political and social vision, demonstrating the power of the arts to improve our world.

As with the White House's description of the "patriotism" in the works of Jasper Johns, who recently received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, I'm not quite sure this captures what di Suvero's work is about. He does have a "strong political and social vision," but whether that's "depicted" in his monumental abstract constructions is another question.

It seems that the White House likes to confer political significance on the art that it honors:


One of many di Suveros displayed (at sat upon, at left) at Storm King Art Center, Mourntainville, NY

In any event, it's a nice and well deserved honor, and you can view the ceremony live, here, tomorrow at 1:45 p.m.

Speaking of honors, my warm thanks go out to CultureGrrl Donors 157 (city unknown) and 158 from Fort Worth, and Repeat Donor 159 from Boston, all of whom have cited my blog as "Deserving of Reader Support" (and politically worthy).