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Pamela White, former interim director of the flood-ravaged University of Iowa Art Museum, and Sean O'Harrow, the museum's current director, in front of the university's "Mural," Jackson Pollock, 1943Let's move on, at least temporarily, from Egypt's cultural heritage (which has been CultureGrrl's preoccupation for the past two weeks) to Iowa's cultural heritage.As CultureGrrl … [Read more...] about Legislative Legerdemain: Iowa’s Rescued Pollock Again in Jeopardy?

Maarten Raven, field director, National Museum of Antiquities, LeidenI was away traveling when I wrote this post, which refers to the International Council of Museums' preliminary report, dated Feb. 3, on the antiquities situation in Egypt. While preparing that post in my hotel room, I was surprised to discover that the online link by which I and other writers had accessed … [Read more...] about ICOM’s Report on Egypt’s Museums and Archaeological Sites

Richard LeventhalICOM (International Council of Museums) on Feb. 3 issued a preliminary report on the antiquities situation in Egypt, including conflicting reports about Saqqara, which I have written about here and now also here, on the Huffington Post. (The link for ICOM's report, posted by numerous sources, is now broken, however.) On his website Sunday, Zahi Hawass, Egypt's … [Read more...] about Repatriate Objects to Egypt? BlogBack from Penn Cultural Center’s Richard Leventhal, Brian Daniels

The area of concern at Saqqara: A) Tourist entrance to Djoser Heb Sed Court; B) Pyramid of Unas; C) Unas Causeway; D) Maya (Treasurer); E) Horemheb (as a general---pharaonic tomb)Photo and caption from Restore + Save the Egyptian Museum! on FacebookThe non-Egyptian Egyptologist who had sent me this BlogBack has just fowarded to me an eyewitness account from a member of a French … [Read more...] about News Flash: Detailed Firsthand Report About Saqqara Looting UPDATED

Crowds outside the Egyptian Museum, CairoPhoto from Zahi Hawass' websiteZahi Hawass, recently named to the new Egyptian government post of Minister of Antiquities, reiterates again today on his website that Egypt's antiquities are safe. He leads off his latest post by emphasizing his own bureaucratic standing:I have come into this new position at a very critical time, but the … [Read more...] about BlogBack: Egyptologist Decries Rumors About Antiquities Looting (but concerns persist)

Mummy at the Egyptian MuseumImage from Zahi Hawass' websiteSamantha Henig of the New Yorker, in the magazine's Back Issues blog today, raises the question of whether Zahi Hawass will remain as Egypt's antiquities chief, "even if the Mubarak government falls." (That's more likely to be a "when," not an "if.")Ian Parker, who wrote a detailed, deprecating 2009 profile for the New … [Read more...] about Egyptian Turmoil: Will Hawass Survive a Regime Change?

Al Jazeera English's live blog from Cairo reported today at 6:12 p.m., Cairo time (11:12 a.m., New York time) that "the Egyptian Museum was fire bombed and the army is now trying to put out the fire." In a recent news report, Al Jazeera stated: The worst of the fighting was just outside the world famous Egyptian Museum.CNN has now posted live footage of the mayhem in front of … [Read more...] about Fire Reported at Egyptian Museum; Hawass’ Deeply Flawed Crisis Response

The ad hoc advisory committee appointed by the Smithsonian Board of Regents to examine exhibition policies in the wake of "Hide/Seek" stated in its report that "avoiding the risks necessary to illuminate the important issues facing society and the American public would diminish the role of the nation's cultural organization."Nevertheless, will Smithsonian curators now feel more … [Read more...] about NPG’s David Ward Advises Smithsonian’s Wayne Clough: “Listen to the Museum Directors”

The Smithsonian's Board of Regents today released the six-page report of its ad hoc advisory committee on exhibition policy, formed in the wake of the "Hide/Seek" controversy.Here are the key passages:The Smithsonian must encourage and provide a forum for dialogue on the important issues of the day. This mandate carries the obligation to produce exhibitions that may be … [Read more...] about Smithsonian Committee’s Recommendation: Keep the Hot-Button Shows Coming (and keep Clough) UPDATED

Rocco Landesman, chairman, National Endowment for the Arts Rocco Landesman has mouthed off again, and the news may not be good for Peoria. But this time, I think that Rock-the-Boat Rocco has expressed some hard truths that have relevance not only to the world of theater, which he knows the most about, but also, perhaps, to the world of art museums. In his post yesterday on … [Read more...] about Financial Shakeout: Do We Need Fewer Arts Organizations?

Zahi Hawass, secretary general, Egypt's Supreme Council of AntiquitiesIn a case of bad timing, the Egyptian government announced last Monday that antiquities chief Zahi Hawass had sent a letter to Hermann Parzinger, president of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation in Germany, renewing his demand for the bust of Nefertiti in Berlin's Neues Museum. (Germany promptly replied … [Read more...] about Damage Control: Zahi Hawass’ and American Preservationists’ Statements

Looters have broken into several cases at the famed Egyptian Museum in Cairo. Egypt's antiquities chief, Zahi Hawass, told the Associated Press that the celebrated King Tutankhamun treasures were safe. But The Eloquent Peasant [via]---the blog of Margaret Maitland, a D.Phil. candidate in Egyptology at the University of Oxford---has matched images (from the Al Jazeera news … [Read more...] about AP’s Video of Looting’s Aftermath at Egyptian Museum, Cairo UPDATED

In her Thursday NY Times piece, The Permanent Collection May Not Be So Permanent, Robin Pogrebin constructs a straw man and then knocks it down: She mentions several museums that have recently put works up for sale and observes: A few years ago sales like these were likely to have gone unnoticed. Yet deaccessioning---the art world term for selling pieces from a … [Read more...] about Deaccession Digressions in NY Times: What Matters, What Doesn’t

Smithsonian Regent John McCarter Jr.Next week we're likely to discover more about what the Smithsonian has learned from the "Hide/Seek" contretemps and whether this painful experience will have any lasting impact on institutional policy and practice.A brief report by a three-person panel, which met only once (earlier this month) to review Smithsonian policies in the wake of the … [Read more...] about Smithsonian Regents to Discuss “Hide/Seek”-Related Report of Ad Hoc Policy Panel

President Obama delivering last night's State of the Union addressWhite House photo: Peter SouzaGiven the ruffle-no-feathers tone of President Obama's long, tedious "State of the Union" last night, It's not surprising that art and culture never enlivened the speech. In the least substantive such address in recent memory, one of the few moments when the orator-in-chief ventured … [Read more...] about What Obama Didn’t Say: Why Art is Crucial to the State of the Union