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Repatriation Bait: Bronzes previously part of the Zodiac Fountain of Beijing's Summer Palace, offered last February at Christie's in Paris, from the collection of Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé In his Nov. 13 testimony to the State Department's Cultural Property Advisory Committee (CPAC), Michael Conforti, president of the Association of the Art Museum Directors (AAMD), … [Read more...] about Cultural-Property Watch: Chinese Kerfuffle at the Met and Other International Gambits

Not-So-Grand Prize for CultureGrrl's 100th DonorAre Art Fag City's fans more devoted than CultureGrrl's?Paddy Johnson, author of that art blog, today launched her annual donor drive that seeks to raise at least $8,000 in two weeks! Art-lings, since I started rattling my tin cup for handouts last February, I've netted about half that. Something's better than nothing, and I've … [Read more...] about Blogging for Bucks: What Has “Art Fag City” Got that CultureGrrl Hasn’t? CORRECTED

In its 2007 petition seeking court permission to sell a half-share of its Stieglitz Collection to Alice Walton's Crystal Bridges Museum, Fisk University gave the following (now outdated) justification for the proposed transaction:If Fisk's current financial condition doesn't improve, there is a high likelihood that it may lose its accreditation. Fisk is accredited by the … [Read more...] about Reaccredited, Fisk Loses a Reason to Sell Art to Alice Walton

Rendering of addition to Crocker Art Museum, on rightYesterday's CultureGrrl post, giving the other side of the story, as a corrective to Robin Pogrebin's gloomy NY Times piece on cultural institutions' building projects, has generated lots of comment. As I expected, other museums have been chiming in (via e-mail) with updates on their own full-steam-ahead expansion … [Read more...] about More Mortar: Updates on Yesterday’s Museum Building Story

Rendering of the planned Clyfford Still Museum, DenverJust as I thought---Robin Pogrebin's article about the various setbacks for museum building projects fits squarely in the NY Times' time-honored tradition of reporting on a trend that's almost at an end.Her Saturday piece had barely hit the recyclables pile when no less than four art museums (did I miss any?) released … [Read more...] about Not Dead Yet: Museum Building Projects Are Alive and Kicking

For our happy first-two-nights Hanukkah celebration, CultureSpouse and I traveled with CultureSon and Daughter-in-Law to CultureDaughter's university, where by next summer she will (we hope) have her acoustic engineering PhD. At a used books-and-records store in College Town, I got myself a present---a three-record set (notwithstanding my high-tech daughter, I still own a … [Read more...] about Seasonal Benefactions: CultureGrrl’s Holiday Supporters (and gift to self)

Rendering of St. Louis Art Museum's planned David Chipperfield-designed expansionIn Saturday's NY Times, Michael Kimmelman provided a needed critical appraisal of the late Thomas Hoving's professional accomplishments and missteps. (For the record, though, Hoving acquired for the Met the Harry G.C. Packard Collection of Japanese art, not "David" (sic) Packard's collection.)For … [Read more...] about NY Times Watch: Kimmelman on Hoving; Pogrebin on the Museum Building Bust

The Metropolitan Museum has posted no statement on its website regarding the death of its former director (which I've discussed here and here) and has not as yet announced plans to commemorate his contributions, either in its galleries or with a memorial event. But it has placed the following classified obit in today's NY Times: The Trustees and staff of The Metropolitan Museum … [Read more...] about Metropolitan Museum’s Thomas Hoving Obit and De Montebello’s Remembrance

After photographing the jacket of the late Thomas Hoving's Metropolitan Museum memoir, "Making the Mummies Dance," to illustrate my remembrance yesterday, I decided to leaf through the book, to relive through his eyes that tumultuous era. I came upon Hoving's own description (p. 369) of what his 10-year reign (1967-77) as the Met's director was all about:My goal was to make the … [Read more...] about Tom Hoving’s Metropolitan Museum, in His Own Words

Thomas Hoving, vamping on his book coverI had been thinking about Tom Hoving today, only to return home from a Guggenheim press lunch and some pre-Hanukkah shopping to learn from Randy Kennedy's online NY Times report that this morning he had died. [UPDATE: Eric Gibson's appraisal for the Wall Street Journal is here. My own further comments on Hoving are here.]I was … [Read more...] about The Death of a Showman: Tom Hoving, 78 WITH ADDENDUM

Left to right: Glenn Lowry, Victor Pinchuk and London dealer Jay Jopling at the Museum of Modern Art during Tuesday's press preview of its upcoming Orozco retrospective Does anyone besides me find it unseemly that four major museum directors---Glenn Lowry (MoMA), Richard Armstrong (Guggenheim), Nicholas Serota (Tate) and Alfred Pacquement (Pompidou)---have lent their … [Read more...] about Follow the Billions: Museum Directors Line Up Behind Pinchuk’s Prize

Observant art-lings may be wondering why, late last night, my CultureGrrl post and YouTube video about Cooper Union mysteriously vanished.I was sternly asked by the school to take them down, "immediately."I'm familiar with the parameters of print journalism, but I'm a YouTube rube. Or so I learned after my visit on Friday to what seemed to be a public space in the front part of … [Read more...] about Video Violation: My Cooper Union Clip Deleted

At this rate, I'm never going to make it to my goal of 100 CultureGrrl Donors (I've got 92) by the end of this year (let alone by Hanukkah, which begins this Friday night). 'Tis the season for me to take time off.I'm going out now to view a museum exhibition and buy some presents for my family. When I return, I hope to be pleasantly surprised. That "Donate" button is rendered … [Read more...] about Donor Dearth: CultureGrrl’s Day Off

Left to right, at Kennedy Center Honors: Mel Brooks, Bruce Springsteen, Michelle Obama, President Obama, Vice President Joseph R. Biden (not pictured: honorees Dave Brubeck, Grace Bumbry, Robert De Niro)Pool photograph by Martin H. SimonYou already know what I think of Rocco Landesman's new slogan for the National Endowment for the Arts. I was reminded of what a dud it is when … [Read more...] about President Obama Crafts a Better NEA Slogan: “Art Strengthens America” UPDATED

That's right, art-lings. I'm not at Art Basel Miami again! Maybe I'll surprise you (and myself) by going next year.In the meantime, for my money (what money?) the best you-are(sort of)-there feeling can be had at the Miami Herald, which flooded the zone with four reporters and posted both a video and slide show to take you into the action. I also appreciated the coverage in the … [Read more...] about Fourth Annual Art Basel Miami Sour Grapes Soufflé UPDATED