My enthusiastic response to the Association of Art Museum Directors' announcement that it had voted to "strengthen" its 2008 antiquities-collecting guidelines was premature. Having now read and analyzed the full document, comparing it closely with the 2008 guidelines, it seems to me that the primary change in AAMD's eight-page Revisions to the 2008 Guidelines on the … [Read more...] about AAMD’s “Strengthened” Antiquities-Collecting Guidelines Boost the Loopholes
Archives for January 2013
Hispanic Society, Metropolitan Museum, Middlebury: One Institution’s Trash Is Another’s Treasure
The privileged installation at the Metropolitan Museum of one of the many highly important coins cast off by the Hispanic Society of America (HSA)---the silver coin of Brutus, commemorating the murder of Julius Caesar on the Ides of March---is "Exhibit A" in the case (pun intended) against museum disposals of museum quality objects. As I've argued repeatedly, a … [Read more...] about Hispanic Society, Metropolitan Museum, Middlebury: One Institution’s Trash Is Another’s Treasure
AAMD’s Revised Guidelines Issued for Antiquities Collecting
You've been waiting for this and so have I. Now it's here. The Association of Art Museum Directors' Revisions to the 2008 Guidelines on the Acquisition of Archaeological Material and Ancient Art has just hit its website, so I'll be reading it along with you. But this welcome news did leap out at me from the "Introduction": The 2013 revision also adds certain definitions … [Read more...] about AAMD’s Revised Guidelines Issued for Antiquities Collecting
News Flash: AAMD Votes to Strengthen Antiquities-Related Guidelines
It sounds like, Hugh Eakins' screed notwithstanding, the Association of Art Museum Directors has done the right thing. This just in from its midwinter meeting in Kansas City: AAMD’s members voted today to approve revisions to strengthen and clarify its guidelines for collecting archaeological material & ancient art. Full details will be publicly released upon the … [Read more...] about News Flash: AAMD Votes to Strengthen Antiquities-Related Guidelines
News Flash: American Numismatic Society Retrieves Another 7,291 Ex-Huntington Coins (plus a visit to “Brutus” at the Met)
Great news from the American Numismatic Society! Thanks to a second anonymous donor, the ANS has now retrieved a total of about 26,500 of nearly 38,000 Spanish coins and tokens that had resided at the ANS since 1949 on long-term loan but had been removed by their owner, the Hispanic Society of America, for disposal at a sealed-bid auction at Sotheby's last March. That sale … [Read more...] about News Flash: American Numismatic Society Retrieves Another 7,291 Ex-Huntington Coins (plus a visit to “Brutus” at the Met)
Antiquities Antics: Hugh Eakin’s Astonishing Anti-Repatriation Screed
Hugh Eakin's distorted, often mistaken opinion piece, The Great Giveback, which finds fault with American museums' willingness to return antiquities to their countries of origin, would best be ignored if it hadn't been accorded the high-profile bully pulpit of a full-page spread in today's NY Times "Review" section. Since Eakin has extensively covered the Cultural Property … [Read more...] about Antiquities Antics: Hugh Eakin’s Astonishing Anti-Repatriation Screed
The New Improved(?) CultureGrrl: Makeover Madness
I apologize to those of you who, like me, may have experienced some technological trauma (or, in my case, utter panic) during today's CultureGrrl transition to this new format. Many of you (including me) probably encountered broken links (leading to error messages) that should have connected you to my previous posts. This was happening, for a while, with links from my blog, the … [Read more...] about The New Improved(?) CultureGrrl: Makeover Madness
Antiquities Collecting in Spotlight at AAMD’s Midwinter Meeting
I can't take any credit for this, but when it meets in Kansas City next week, the Association of Art Museum Directors will do exactly what I said it should do---review how members are following (or not) the association's 2008 guidelines for antiquities collecting. AAMD's just released rundown of highlights from its midwinter meeting's agenda includes this hot-button colloquy … [Read more...] about Antiquities Collecting in Spotlight at AAMD’s Midwinter Meeting
Coin Toss: Hispanic Society’s Contradictory Stances on the Rights of Archer Huntington’s Heirs
The far-flung, tortuous odyssey continues for the superlative collection of coins related to Spain that were once owned by collector/philanthropist Archer Huntington and were donated by him in 1946 to the Hispanic Society of America. One of the most important of these emblems of history and culture has now happily landed on loan at the Metropolitan Museum (Gallery 166), in a … [Read more...] about Coin Toss: Hispanic Society’s Contradictory Stances on the Rights of Archer Huntington’s Heirs
BlogBack: More on AAMD’s (Mis)use of Its Object Registry for Antiquities
It seems to me that art museums' use, misuse and non-use of the Association of Art Museum's Object Registry should be ripe for review at AAMD's imminent midwinter meeting, Jan. 27-30 in Kansas City. In the meantime, perhaps the association's members should get hold of the masters thesis of Alyssa Hagen, who graduated last spring from Rutgers University's Cultural Heritage … [Read more...] about BlogBack: More on AAMD’s (Mis)use of Its Object Registry for Antiquities
What Would Ada Louise Say? NY Public Library Explains Why Building Won’t Collapse After Blowing Its Stacks
Without naming her newspaper's late architecture critic, the Wall Street Journal's Jennifer Maloney on Wednesday published the New York Public Library's rejoinder to one of the main gripes voiced by Ada Louise Huxtable regarding that institution's planned major overhaul of its flagship Fifth Avenue building (to be designed by Norman Foster). Maloney wrote: Critics of the … [Read more...] about What Would Ada Louise Say? NY Public Library Explains Why Building Won’t Collapse After Blowing Its Stacks
AAMD Has “Every Confidence” in Members’ Appropriate Use of Their Antiquities Object Registry
In my Sunday post on recent cultural-property news and controversies, I argued (and demonstrated) that some members of the Association of Art Museum Directors appeared to be using the group's Object Registry "as a pretext to skirt the UNESCO guidelines [regarding acquisition of antiquities and other cultural property] that they purport to uphold." I asserted that museums need … [Read more...] about AAMD Has “Every Confidence” in Members’ Appropriate Use of Their Antiquities Object Registry
$65-Million Naming Opportunity: Groundbreaking for Metropolitan Museum’s “David H. Koch Plaza” (with video)
In an after-the-fact groundbreaking ceremony, postponed due to Hurricane Sandy, VIPs from the Metropolitan Museum of Art and government officials belatedly assembled yesterday to speech-ify and celebrate the museum's in-construction, revamped entrance plaza, to be named for its $65-million benefactor, Met trustee David Koch: Here's how the Met's two new fountains (as … [Read more...] about $65-Million Naming Opportunity: Groundbreaking for Metropolitan Museum’s “David H. Koch Plaza” (with video)
From Stalled Guggenheim Helsinki to the Albright-Knox: Janne Sirén Named to Direct in Buffalo
First off, he shortened his name. When he was helping to formulate and promote plans for the Guggenheim Helsinki, for which he was thought to be a likely choice for director, we knew him (scroll down) as Janne Gallen-Kallela-Sirén, director of the Helsinki Art Museum. Even Ari Wiseman, the Guggenheim's deputy director, had difficulty pronouncing his name. On the streets … [Read more...] about From Stalled Guggenheim Helsinki to the Albright-Knox: Janne Sirén Named to Direct in Buffalo
Getty’s Latest Repatriation (plus AAMD members’ loose interpretation of cultural-property guidelines)
In another case of a voluntary repatriation by an American museum, the J. Paul Getty Museum announced last week that it would hand over its 10 3/4-inches-high Head of Hades, now on display at the Getty Villa, to the Archaeological Museum in Aidone, Italy, after the conclusion of the Getty-organized traveling exhibition, Sicily: Art and Invention between Greece and Rome (Getty … [Read more...] about Getty’s Latest Repatriation (plus AAMD members’ loose interpretation of cultural-property guidelines)