Lee Rosenbaum's cultural commentary

Joachim Pissarro, who is both MoMA's adjunct curator and Steve Cohen's paid advisor, extolling the virtues of the collector and his collection at Sotheby's (David Norman, Sotheby's co-chairman of Impressionist & Modern Art, listens on left.)Are commercial galleries and auction houses the new museums?Lisa Dennison, Sotheby's chairman in North and South America (who, as … [Read more...] about Sotheby’s Steve Cohen Show: Auctioneers and Dealers Become Pretend-Museums

The Deaccession Diva (aka CultureGrrl), warbling at the MANY/UHA conference in TarrytownI'm a strong believer that the time has come for forceful state legislation, enforced by State Attorneys General, to regulate museum disposals from the public's patrimony. The traditional posture of museums has been that they can regulate themselves and that politicians should not interfere. … [Read more...] about Legislating Deaccession Policy: Brodsky Bill Musings at NY Museums Conference

The banner at the defunct Salander O'Reilly GalleriesMeandering yesterday to the Frick Collection's Norton Simon show from the Sotheby's press preview for its Steve Cohen Show, which seemed more a promotion for Sotheby's than for Steve, I passed perchance (I picked up that word from the Cohen catalogue's turgid essay) right by the formerly palatial digs of Larry Salander's … [Read more...] about Salander’s Ruined Art Showplace Becomes Decorators’ Show House

I feared it was only a matter of time before Regina Hackett, a refugee from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer (now online only), started sniping at me on my home turf, ArtsJournal, whose roster of bloggers she recently joined. On her now defunct "Art to Go" blog, she delighted in periodically taking personal potshots at me. So it was today (in a post to which I won't link), when … [Read more...] about Hackett’s Hatchet Job: CultureGrrl Gets Nicked

Since I told you that you simply MUST see the Philadelphia Museum's landmark Cézanne and Beyond show, I must let you know that it's just been extended beyond its original May 17 close date. You now have through May 31 (including Memorial Day) to catch curator Joe Rishel's consummate tour de force (or see it a second time). This gives new life to one wag's early title for the … [Read more...] about Cézanne and Beyond (…and beyond…)…and UPDATED

Carmine Branagan (left), director of the National Academy, showing CBS-TV's Martha Teichner an Eakins (top) that her museum still owns, during a recent edition of the "Sunday Morning" showIn my role as Deaccession Diva at this week's NY State museums conference (organized for relatively small-sized institutions), I played to a full house (or, more accurately, crowded room) … [Read more...] about My “Desperation Deaccessions” Performance and Carmine Branagan’s Walk-On Role

I'm back, art-lings, from the annual conference in Tarrytown held by the Museum Association of New York and the Upstate History Alliance, where the discussion on "Desperation Deaccessions" was possibly the only event in which the attendees (some of whom popped in just for this session) may have been more distinguished and thoughtful than the featured speaker and discussion … [Read more...] about Another Day Without CultureGrrl

I've been invited to vocalize at two deaccession-related speaking gigs in the next few weeks---a sign, I suppose, of the increased interest and anxiety over this issue, touched off by the current financial crisis and the recent controversies at the National Academy and the Rose Art Museum.The Deaccession Diva's first engagement, as I've briefly mentioned, is at the annual … [Read more...] about CultureGrrl Curriculum: The Deaccession Diva Tarries in Tarrytown

Manhattan District Attorney Robert MorgenthauI can't do this justice by merely excerpting it. You'll just have to read it for yourself, but make sure you're sitting down. It's the press release from Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau describing in hair-raising detail the substance of the 100-count indictment just handed down against bankrupt dealer Larry Salander, … [Read more...] about District Attorney Morgenthau: Gory Details of the Salander Indictment

Goudstikker heir Marei von Saher at the "Reclaimed" press previewThe most fascinating object in the uneven, possibly problematic traveling show now at the Jewish Museum, New York, Reclaimed: Paintings from the Collection of Jacques Goudstikker (to Aug. 2), is now online and searchable. It's the small, meticulously annotated inventory notebook (have patience; it loads slowly) in … [Read more...] about Goudstikker “Reclaimed” Show: Searchable Online Inventory Book, Question-Raising Exhibition

Titian, "Flora," ca.1516-18, Uffizi Gallery, Florence, in BMFA's "Titian Tintoretto Veronese" exhibitionIn my post on Antiquities Diplomacy: More Italian Loans to the Getty, I stated that the patience of Michael Brand, the Getty's director, "in crafting antiquities collaborations with Italy, rather than arranging immediate compensatory loans (as was done when the Metropolitan … [Read more...] about BlogBack: George Shackelford on Boston Museum of Fine Arts’ Collaboration with Italy

Robert Workman, speaking at the Crystal Bridges site dedication Crystal Bridges, Alice Walton's museum-in-construction in Bentonville, AR, has added three contemporary works to the small selection of acquisitions listed on its website. But it has lost its director, Bob Workman. In a Jan. 26 announcement that fell under my radar (and maybe yours), the museum disclosed … [Read more...] about Crystal Bridges Update: Bob Workman Resigns; “Kindred Spirits” at the Met

David RockefellerIn reponse to my inquiry last week about the prolonged absence from the Museum of Modern Art's galleries of Picasso's early Cubist masterpiece, "The Reservoir, Horta de Ebro," 1909, Kim Mitchell, the museum's spokesperson, informed me late Friday afternoon that the painting (a fractional and promised gift to MoMA from its honorary chairman, David Rockefeller) … [Read more...] about MoMA Comments on Four-Year Disappearance of Rockefeller’s Fractional-Gift Picasso

Italian prosecutor Paolo Ferri Why was I perusing Italian newspapers last weekend? I stumbled across Corriere del Mezzogiorno's article about the imminent loan to the J. Paul Getty Museum of two bronze statues excavated at Pompeii because I had been searching (in vain) for Italian newspapers' take on this new development in the never-ending trial in Rome of Marion True, … [Read more...] about True Trial: Getty’s Ex-Curator Fights Back, Italy’s Expert Witness Retreats

"Chimaera of Arezzo," Etruscan (from Arezzo,) 400-375 B.C., Museo Archeologico Nazionale, FlorencePhoto: Fernando GuerriniBut wait, there's more!I've not yet heard from the J. Paul Getty Museum about the upcoming loan of two bronze Apollos from the National Archaeological Museum of Naples, about which I've just posted. But hot off my inbox is a Getty press release about loans … [Read more...] about Antiquities Diplomacy, Part II: More Italian Loans to the Getty