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Both Sotheby's and Christie's managed to eke out small increases in the total sales (including both auction and private sales) for the first half of 2008 over that of 2007, and both (as was also true last year) were neck-and-neck. As a public company, Sotheby's (unlike Christie's) reports not only sale totals but also revenues, net income and earnings per share. Those figures, … [Read more...] about Auction Report, First Half of 2008: Mostly Sunny, Some Clouds

Gary Tinterow I come to praise Gary Tinterow, not to bury him. CultureGrrl readers know I've been periodically critical of the Metropolitan Museum's curator of 19th-century, modern and contemporary art. But in a laudable collection-sharing arrangement that we can only hope will proliferate more widely at the Met and other institutions, Tinterow has agreed to long-term loans … [Read more...] about Collection Sharing: Gary Tinterow Does It Right

David Galenson, University of Chicago economics professor Is Richard Hamilton's 1956 Just What Is It That Makes Today's Homes So Different, So Appealing? (click and scroll down) the fourth-greatest artwork of the 20th century? Somehow, I doubt even the artist would make that claim.David Galenson's ranking of the importance of this and other 20th-century landmarks according to … [Read more...] about The “Richard Hamilton” Question: What is it that makes art rankings so appealing?

Glenn Lowry and Deborah Wye at Tuesday's Kirchner previewWhy has the Museum of Modern Art decided to give Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, a middling German Expressionist, the "first New York museum show devoted entirely to his work" (as decribed by the show's curator, Deborah Wye)? The chief focus of Kirchner and the Berlin Street, which opens to the public on Sunday, is an eye-popping … [Read more...] about Ronald Lauder’s Trophy Kirchner Gets MoMA Showcase

Damien Hirst, "Pharmacy,"1992, Tate Gallery © Damien HirstSomeone who signed his name as "Pharmacy" yesterday sent me an admiring but cryptic e-mail that was linked as a comment to my 2006 post, "Sensation!" German-Style. The message clearly had nothing to do with that long-ago review of the "Glitter and Doom" show at the Metropolitan Museum. But the allusion to "Sensation!", … [Read more...] about Damien The E-Mail? A Cryptic Missive to CultureGrrl

Signature image of the Philippe retrospective: Peter Paul Rubens, "Rubens, His Wife Helena Fourment and Their Son Peter Paul," probably late 1630s, Metropolitan Museum of ArtNot only are the Metropolitan Museum's more than 84,000 works acquired during the 31-year reign of director Philippe de Montebello going to be celebrated in an exhibition of more than 250 selected objects, … [Read more...] about Philippe The Exhibition: His Acquisitions Become a Show and a Syllabus

In this post about the vulnerability of the National Gallery and other Washington institutions to flooding if the endangered Potomac Park levee fails, I observed that these facilities "had better have a plan for keeping their treasures high and dry."Here's what Deborah Ziska, the National Gallery's chief of press and public information, had to say, in response to my query: The … [Read more...] about National Gallery’s Flood Preparedness (and a correction)

This is not a Hirst: Bull's Head Rhyton, Late Minoan (ca. 1450 B.C.), Herakleion Archaeological MuseumFor his audacious, dealer-bypassing London auction of 223 new works (total presale estimate: more than £65 million), Damien Hirst has concocted an instant "retrospective" of 2008 creations, which recap his career's signature styles and motifs---spin art, dots, butterflies and, … [Read more...] about Damien The Auction: A Career “Retrospective” of Brand New Works

Now (for just $75 million) you can! Sotheby's International Realty has the listing for the 21,200 square feet of "grand and elegant neo-Italian Renaissance" space that once housed Lawrence Salander's financially beleaguered gallery. Christopher Gray of the NY Times reported on Sunday that the E. 71st Street townhouse (above) is being sold by its owner, the real estate mogul and … [Read more...] about Pssst! Wanna Buy the Salander-O’Reilly Townhouse?

Pablo Picasso, "Guernica," 1937, Reina Sofia, MadridDoes Picasso's "Guernica," one of the most celebrated paintings of the 20th century, have "a robust constitution," or is it in "stable but serious" condition?That depends on whether you ask Manuel Borja-Villel, the director of Madrid's Reina Sofia Museum, who provided the upbeat description (as reported by the Associated … [Read more...] about Guernica’s Condition: Robust or Fragile?

In Toronto's Globe and Mail later this morning (but online now), James Bradshaw and Josh Wingrove report on the contents of the legal affidavits in the dispute between the National Gallery of Canada's director, Pierre Théberge, and its deputy director, David Franklin, (who was abruptly put on leave). Franklin's July 16 request for a judicial review of the situation was … [Read more...] about News Flash: David Franklin Court Documents Unsealed; Canada National Gallery’s Conflicts Revealed

Kwame Opoku, a tireless commentator on restitution issues (one of whose essays recently attracted a rejoinder on Afrikanet.info from Metropolitan Museum director Philippe de Montebello), responds to Michael Conforti Q&A About AAMD and Antiquities: It is always interesting to hear from those whose work it is to keep records of the past achievements of mankind and society … [Read more...] about BlogBack: Kwame Opoku Responds to Michael Conforti

In the flood zone: The National Gallery of Art[NOTE: There is a correction to the first paragraph of this post, here.]Remember the June 2006 cresting of the Potomac River in Washington, DC, which caused temporary closures of the National Archives, National Gallery, Natural History Museum and American History Museum, not to mention the Internal Revenue Service?Now, according to … [Read more...] about Major Washington Museums at Serious Risk for Flooding

This message, which seems to debunk the latest identity theory, is now posted on the homepage of the Banksy website [via]:I think I'll let that be the last word on this momentous subject. … [Read more...] about Gunning for Gunningham: A Dispatch from Banksy?

Chanel and Karl Lagerfeld have done Vuitton and Marc Jacobs one better. Or, much more accurately, one worse.Vuitton merely usurped nonprofit museum space for commercial purposes. Chanel will invade a swath of public land to promote its brand: Its players will overtake Rumsey Playfield in New York's Central Park, Oct. 20 to Nov. 9, with "Mobile Art," a futuristic pod designed by … [Read more...] about Central Park Goes to Hell in a Handbag