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Tania Branigan, China correspondent for the GuardianAs I said yesterday in my post about Ai Weiwei's electrifying return to Twitter, the recently released Chinese dissident artist seems determined to speak truth to power, no matter what the personal cost. In his latest tweet, posted nine hours ago, he explains why:If you don't speak for Wang Lihong, nor for Ran Yunfei, not only … [Read more...] about Twitter Rebellion: Ai Weiwei Strikes Yet Again (and explains why)

Signature image on Ai Weiwei's revived Twitter pageAi Weiwei, released from detention on June 22, was already asking for trouble by posting provocative documents recently on Google+. But with his apparent return to Twitter, he's flirting with disaster. Like his Twitter page, the English translation site for his tweets (managed by volunteers) is up and running again. His first … [Read more...] about Ai Weiwei Tweets about Detainees: “Mental Devastation, Physical Torture”

The rubble-strew vacant lot at Houston Street and Second Avenue, now transformed as the site of the BMW Guggenheim LabPhoto: Kristopher McKay © Solomon R. Guggenheim FoundationWith federal and state governments already in financial meltdown, and with today's Dow drop suggesting that we could be coming down with another economic-flu epidemic, where can future arts sponsorship be … [Read more...] about MeTube on BMW’s Brash Sponsorship: Guggenheim Lab Confronts Luxury Cars

Walter Liedtke,curator of European paintings at the Metropolitan Museum, responds to my comments about his Frans Hals show in yesterday's post, The Whit/Met: Holland Cotter Thinks Outside the Breuer Box:A few quick points about your piece: The "Laughing Cavalier" is in the Wallace Collection, which can never lend. Manet's pastel of "George Moore" could not have been displayed … [Read more...] about BlogBack: Walter Liedtke, Met Paintings Curator, on His Frans Hals Show

A number of CultureGrrl readers have responded to my call for a list of emerging museum-related ethical issues that I should bring to the table in my role as "oracle" for the American Association of Museums' new Center for the Future of Museums.A week ago, I outlined my own ideas, which I sent to the CFM. But as soon as I submitted my survey response, I realized that I had … [Read more...] about BlogBacks: Readers “Surface” Hot-Button Ethical Issues Facing Museums

Christie's was still calling itself "the world's leading art business," in its July 21 press release announcing its $3.2 billion total sales (public and private) for the first half of 2011. But, in fact, Sotheby's, which issued its first-half results today, nosed ahead of its archrival, with total sales of $3.4 billion. Its press release stated that this was Sotheby's "highest … [Read more...] about Market Share Reversal: Sotheby’s Edges Out Christie’s in First-Half Global Sales UPDATED

Illustration for Holland Cotter's Met/Whitney thinkpiece: What's wrong with this picture? Holland Cotter, the NY Times' Pulitzer-prize winning art critic, brainstormed about the future of the Metropolitan Museum in a long front-page piece in the Sunday "Arts & Leisure" section, coming up with some compelling suggestions for what the Met could do with the Breuer-designed … [Read more...] about The Whit/Met: Holland Cotter Thinks Outside the Breuer Box

Scene from the Philly Barnes construction webcamArguments in Montgomery County Orphans' Court, Norristown, PA,  have just concluded in the attempt by opponents of the Barnes Foundation's move to Philadelphia to convince Judge Stanley Ott to agree to a reconsideration of his decision permitting the foundation to relocate. That decision allowed the Barnes to deviate from … [Read more...] about Barnes Litigants’ Attorney Says Appeal Likely if Judge Ott Doesn’t Reopen the Case

AbEx Gap: Pollock flanked by two Newmans stand in for the entire New York School in painting-and-sculpture galleries at New York's premiere contemporary/modern museum. Not to be outdone by the Metropolitan Museum's recently announced $25 suggested adult admission fee, the Museum of Modern Art last week announced that it would up its mandatory fee to $25. MoMA's rate hike … [Read more...] about MoMA Raises Admission Fee (to $25), While Its Icons Go AWOL

The flagship building of the American Folk Art Museum (with the red banner) on its last day. On left (behind the white "MoMA" fence) is the vacant lot where the Nouvel-designed MoMA/Hines tower may eventually rise. On the right is MoMA. The financially struggling American Folk Art Museum (AFAM), which permanently closed its 53rd Street building to the public on July 8, … [Read more...] about Folk Art Museum’s Bad-News Day: Sale to MoMA Consummated, Disgraced Patron Sentenced

I've been called many names, but, until now, "oracle" has not been among them.That's how the American Association of Museums' new Center for the Future of Museums (CFM) is referring to the museum professionals and other experts (including me) enlisted to identify and reflect upon emerging ethical issues that museums will likely confront in the coming decades. This nascent think … [Read more...] about CultureGrrl the Oracle: Hot-Button Issues Surveyed by Center for the Future of Museums UPDATED

Ai Weiwei's Google+ photoMy advice to you is this: Hurry over to Ai Weiwei's Google+ page, just established yesterday [via], while you still can. Who knows how this latest (and, given his recent 81-day detention, most audacious) thumb-in-the-eye to the Chinese authorities can remain there, uncensored?As Jeremy Page of the Wall Street Journal reported at the time of Ai's release … [Read more...] about Testing the Boundaries: Ai Weiwei Speaks via Google+ (plus CultureGrrl Video of Asia Society show)

Entrance to Boston Museum of Fine Arts' "Art of the Ancient World" galleriesI knew that I could count on CultureGrrl's scholarly readers to evaluate the provenances provided to me by the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts for the eight ancient Egyptian objects on loan to the museum from the recently indicted Virginia collector, Joseph Lewis II.Archaeologist/blogger David Gill (who … [Read more...] about Joseph Lewis’ Egyptian Art Loans at U.S. Museums, Continued (plus Boston’s planned giveback to Turkey)

Signing cultural-property agreement with Greece: U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Greek Minister of Foreign Affairs Stavros Lambrinidis A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Greece, restricting U.S. importation of that country's cultural property, was signed Saturday at the Acropolis Museum, Athens, by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Greek Minister … [Read more...] about Greek Cultural-Property Agreement: U.S. Adopts Broad Import Restrictions

This just posted on the Restore + Save the Egyptian Museum! Facebook page (for Egyptologists) by Nicole Hansen, who in March had participated in a Cairo demonstration demanding that antiquities be kept independent from the Ministry of Culture under the post-Mubarak regime:New list of candidates for [antiquities] minister: Abdel Halim Noureddin, Raafat al-Nabrawi, Wagdi Abbas, … [Read more...] about Hawass Watch: New Candidates for Antiquities Minister Post