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"Mona/Leo" by Lillian Schwartz: Fusion or delusion?To the arsenal of Leonardo da Vinci researchers, we may now have to add not only medical science but also grave digging.The Times of London, which earlier this month brought us Mona Lisa's cholesterol problem, now reports:Scientists seeking permission to exhume the remains [in France] of Leonardo da Vinci plan to reconstruct … [Read more...] about Ghoulish Art History: Will Leonardo Be Exhumed for “Mona Lisa” Comparison?

Cross section. left, of Renzo Piano's planned addition to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, right, connected by glass walkwayBoth the Boston Globe's Sebastian Smee (in a negative review) and the NY Times' Nicolai Ouroussoff (in a positive review) have serious misgivings about an important aspect of Renzo Piano's just unveiled plans for a 70,000-square-foot addition to the … [Read more...] about The Gardner, the Morgan, the Barnes: Modern Additions vs. Founders’ Visions

Rendering of the planned Philly Barnes: Permanent collection galleries are the rectangle in the foreground; behind and above, the light box over a connecting courtyard; behind and wrapping around the light box, the L-shaped entry pavilion with temporary exhibition space on the right  During my recent conversation with architects Tod Williams and Billie Tsien after their … [Read more...] about Williams and Tsien on How Philly Barnes Will Be Different (and whether it should move)

Materials of the Philly Barnes (presented at Philadelphia Arts Commission meeting)[Part 1 is here. The video of my visit to the Barnes Foundation's Philadelphia construction site, showing a prototype fragment of the new facility, is here.]I've been intending to follow up on my first post (linked above) about the Philadelphia Arts Commission's approval of the Barnes plans, … [Read more...] about MeTube: Architect Tod Williams Presents Barnes Site Plans to Philly Arts Commission—Part 2

Sean O'Harrow of the Figge Art Museum, during my visit last AprilThe Figge Art Museum, Davenport, IA, which owns a large Haitian art collection, has announced that it will donate to the Red Cross, for Haitian earthquake relief, all of its admissions revenue for this week (through Sunday)."We would like to publicly challenge other art institutions to contribute to the Haiti … [Read more...] about Haitian Earthquake Crisis: Figge Art Museum Responds (and how to help)

Wish you could have taken as seat at the Association of Art Museum Directors' mid-winter meeting in Saratoga (oops, I meant Sarasota, but Florida's been so cold)?Thanks to the iPhone and TwitPic page of Max Anderson, director of the Indianapolis Museum of Art, now you can! (If only Max had brought a video camera.)Some of the attendees at last week's joint meeting of AAMD's … [Read more...] about Max Flash: Scene from AAMD’s Mid-Winter Meeting

Judith Dobrzynski The Association of Art Museum Directors has now joined the American Association of Museums in reasserting the core principle that museums' art-sale proceeds should be used to enhance the collection, not to defray operating expenses or debts. These restatements came on the heels of Judith Dobrzynski's recent NY Times Op-Ed piece, in which she argued that, … [Read more...] about AAMD on Deaccessioning: Reaffirmation of Proceeds-for-Collections Policy

Front row, left to right: Assemblymen Steve Englebright, Richard Brodsky and Matthew TitoneThe usual arguments about government regulation of museum deaccessioning, pro and con, were rehashed at a meeting in Manhattan called yesterday by the NY State Assembly's Committee on Tourism, Parks, Art and Sports to discuss the Brodsky Bill (A6959), which would regulate art sales by … [Read more...] about Deaccession Meeting: NY State Cultural Officials Discuss Brodsky Bill

Michael, a Los Angeles artists (who identified himself to me but did not want me to disclose his last name) responds to The Getty's Revolving Door: Harmful Brew of Instability and Secrecy:Michael Brand was flatly the most competent and charismatic leader the Getty has thus far had. From the moment James Wood arrived, he has been diminishing the director's position. I think he … [Read more...] about BlogBacks on the Getty and LA MOCA Directorships

"Victorious Youth," Greek, 300 - 100 B.C., J. Paul Getty Museum Did the J. Paul Getty Museum act in good faith when it acquired the Getty Bronze? Back in December 2006, in this post, I concluded no. What I wrote back then, and, more importantly, what the late Thomas Hoving, the Metropolitan Museum's former director, wrote to me in a published CultureGrrl BlogBack, becomes … [Read more...] about BlogBack from the Grave: Thomas Hoving on the Getty Bronze

Derek Gillman, the Barnes Foundation's executive director, at Philadelphia Arts Commission meeting this monthIf you think I was angry about having my interview with Jeffrey Deitch cancelled, you should have heard the opponents of the Barnes Foundation's planned move from Merion to Philly, when they learned from my blog that revised plans for the site were presented and … [Read more...] about MeTube: Architect Tod Williams Presents Barnes Site Plans to Philly Arts Commission—Part I

Block that Pollock! Left to right, LA MOCA co-chairs David Johnson and Maria Bell, director-designate Jeffrey Deitch, Councilwoman Jan Perry, founding chairman Eli BroadI had a tentative appointment for a phone interview with LA MOCA's director-designate Jeffrey Deitch scheduled for today at 6:30 p.m. Eastern time. It's been canceled.Three hours before my scheduled 20 minutes … [Read more...] about Interview Scratched: My Questions for Jeffrey Deitch Go Unanswered

While we wait for someone to get to the bottom of what's going on at the Getty Museum, I can report to you the reception that soon-to-be ex-director Michael Brand has been getting from his colleagues:He received, I am told, a standing ovation from the assembled Getty Museum staff last Thursday when he announced to them his impending departure. Upon his arrival for a strategic … [Read more...] about Rounds of Applause: Michael Brand’s Peer Validation (and his music)

LA MOCA's director-designateWish you could have been a fly on the wall of today's Jeffrey Deitch roll-out at LA MOCA? Now you can! Having flown in for Monday's press conference, and flown out when it got postponed (just kidding about my travels!), I asked the museum's press people if they had any audio, video or transcript of today's proceedings. Nothin' doing. But thanks to … [Read more...] about YouTube Special: LA MOCA’s Question-less “Press Conference”

There was a bit of a disconnect between the slideshow and the text of my Wall Street Journal article today on the new American Indian galleries at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. Only one of the objects that I mentioned in the piece, the Arikara shield, was in the slideshow. So here's a photo essay with views of the galleries and more of the objects I mentioned (as well as a … [Read more...] about Scenes from the Nelson-Atkins’ New American Indian Galleries