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Ingrid Sischy and Sandra Brant---uprooted by the ownership change at Brant Publications, where Sandy was publisher for 23 years and Ingrid was longtime editor at Interview magazine---are job-changing together, to become international editors of the European editions of Vanity Fair magazine. According to Condé Nast's press release:In her new position, [Sischy] will continue … [Read more...] about Sischy and Brant, Together Again…at Vanity Fair

Rembrandt, "Portrait of Catrina Hooghsaet," 1657, Penrhyn Castle, Bangor, WalesMore than a year ago, the Rijksmuseum revealed that it hoped to buy one of the finest Rembrandt portraits in private hands, "Portrait of Catrina Hooghsaet" (above), then on loan to the museum from Penrhyn Castle, North Wales. According to Martin Bailey's story last year in The Art Newspaper, the … [Read more...] about Rijksmuseum Decides Against Buying Pricey Rembrandt Portrait

Leaving Athens for Africa, for the moment---nothing I heard at the two-day "Return of Cultural Objects" conference last week in Athens articulated as comprehensively, intelligently and passionately the arguments for return of objects to their countries of origin as the long article by Kwame Opoku appearing in Monday's Modern Ghana.Opoku details and decries the various ways in … [Read more...] about Out of Africa: Kwame Opoku’s Repatriation Advocacy

Edward Hicks, "The Peaceable Kingdom with the Leopard of Serenity"Photo: Sotheby'sI was surprised to get today's press release that Sotheby's will sell Edward Hicks' "The Peaceable Kingdom with the Leopard of Serenity" at its May 22 American paintings sale. As I reported here (scroll down to last item in the linked post), the auction house had intended to sell that painting … [Read more...] about Esmerian’s “Peaceable Kingdom,” Failing to Sell Privately, Goes Public at Sotheby’s

Rendering of proposed Guggenheim Guadalajara, designed by Enrique Norten I had somehow assumed that the Guggenheim Guadalajara, designed by Enrique Norten/TEN Arquitectos, was one of those figments of Tom Krens' imagination that had been permanently installed in his Museum of the Unbuilt. But a story in today's Guadalajara Reporter indicates that in the Mexicans' minds, this … [Read more...] about Guggenheim Guadalajara: Not a Dead Deal?

Oh no! I may have started something. Here's an excerpt from the latest entry from the Walker Art Center's "Off Center" blog:A quick answer to Rosenbaum's query [about whether a boutique selling Richard Prince's Vuitton handbags might open at the Walker] comes with a stroll to the Walker shop, where a table of products timed to the Prince exhibition is stocked with dozens of … [Read more...] about Vuitton News Flash: Prince Handbags Are Not at the Walker…Yet

Germano Celant: Fashion phobic?Tomorrow's NY Times Magazine is The Art Issue. Yeah, right.Except for one serious piece by the estimable Arthur Lubow about Latin American art in U.S. museums (focusing chiefly on curator Mari Carmen Ramirez of the Houston Museum of Fine Arts), it's all about art-and-catering ("Affairs of the Art World," complete with recipes) and art-and-fashion … [Read more...] about Art Gets the Fashion Treatment (again) in NY Times Magazine

A class at the BarnesOn Monday morning, Judge Stanley Ott of Montgomery County Orphans' Court will hear arguments from lawyers for two opponents to the Barnes Foundations' planned move to Philadelphia---Montgomery County and the Friends of the Barnes (an ad hoc citizens' group). These two entities want Judge Ott to grant them standing to argue in court for a reconsideration of … [Read more...] about Barnes Foundation Case Back in Court Monday

A pile of uncollected garbage a couple of blocks from the New Acropolis Museum in Athens, due to a strike in progress while I was there, which widened yesterday.There was already a garbage workers' strike, a brief museum workers' strike and a Metro shutdown while I was still in Athens. Luckily, my Continental flight took off at 11 a.m. yesterday, as scheduled, but other … [Read more...] about Athwart Athens: My Narrow Escape from a Chaotic Day

My panel on "Museums, Sites and Cultural Context," preparing to do battle.Left to right: CultureGrrl; Ricardo Elia, chair, archaeology department, Boston University; Elena Korka, head of Directorate of Prehistoric and Classical Antiquities, Hellenic Ministry of Culture; Μoira Simpson, senior lecturer in arts education, University of South Australia; Maurice Davies, deputy … [Read more...] about Athwart Athens UPDATED: My Politically Incorrect Moments at the Cultural Property Conference

Finds from the Athens Metro digAttention Art-lings: She's ba-a-a-a-ck!While in Athens, I made it over to the impressive National Archaeological Museum (which I'd previously seen) and the marvelous Museum of Cycladic Art (which I hadn't), not to mention the Acropolis and, of course, the New Acropolis Museum, where I was invited to speak at the the still unopened museum's … [Read more...] about Athwart Athens: The Return of the Grrl

By Martin Filler, Guest Blogger:One of the more eye-catching new books to come my way this season is Between Heaven and Earth: The Architecture of John Lautner (above), the publication for an eponymous retrospective that opens at the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, on July 13. This book and forthcoming exhibition are latest evidence of a gathering campaign to elevate the posthumous … [Read more...] about John Lautner: New Book on the Far-Out Architect

Oscar Bluemner's Bronx Borough CourthouseBy Martin Filler, Guest BloggerThe rediscovery of a major work by an esteemed artist is rare, but rarer still if in a medium not associated with the maker. In fact, when Timothy Williams of the NY Times wrote on Mar. 6 that the long-derelict Bronx Borough Courthouse---a 1906 Beaux-Arts gem in the gritty Morrisania section---will be … [Read more...] about Bluemner Back in Bloom in the Bronx

Rendering of 200 Eleventh AvenueBy Martin Filler, Guest BloggerIt was bound to happen sooner or later---the first bad dispute to arise from the celebrity architect-designed apartment buildings rising all over New York. The case in point is Annabelle Selldorf's 200 Eleventh Avenue in the city's hotter-than-hot Chelsea district, a 19-story tower with 16 condominiums costing from … [Read more...] about Selldorf’s Co-ops: Leaning Tower of Chelsea?

Covered silver tureen and platter designed by Juste-Aurèle Meissonnier, made by Henri-Guillaume Adnet and François BonnestrennePhoto: © Cleveland Museum of ArtBy Martin Filler, Guest BloggerOne symptom of getting older is an increase of the been-there-done-that syndrome, with its odious and sometimes unfair comparisons. Just as I've "retired" certain operas after definitive … [Read more...] about Cooper-Hewitt’s Rococo: Behind the Curve