Lee Rosenbaum's cultural commentary

This continues my photo essay on the new Broad Contemporary Art Museum at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. (Part I is here.) Why is this man talking to a lobster? Left to right: Architect Renzo Piano, collector/patron Eli Broad, Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, LACMA director Michael Govan, at opening remarks for BCAM's press preview Ah, now I get … [Read more...] about BCAM’s People, Places and Art: An Irreverent Photo Essay, Part II

Here's the Wall Street Journal piece on the new Broad Contemporary Art Museum of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, which I've been promising you. It's in tomorrow's newspaper but online now: LA Story With Broad and Piano (Page D7 in the "Personal Journal" section). Now that it's out, I'm liberated from the confines of the phone booth and ready to fly around in my … [Read more...] about Renzo Piano’s Architecture for LACMA: An Irreverent Photo Essay

Soon the WSJ gag rule expires, the gloves come off, and I'll be hitting you with all the news and views that couldn't fit into 1,350 words---not just about the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, but also about Eli Broad, the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art and, let us not forget, the Getty. I'll link you up when it appears online, probably late tonight. … [Read more...] about My Piece on the Broad Contemporary Art Museum in Tomorrow’s Wall Street Journal

Photo of the give-away car, an Opel, released today by Zurich police We now have police-confirmed details on yesterday's recovery, from the above abandoned white car, of paintings stolen Feb. 10 from the Bührle Collection, Zurich. Why did the thieves release only two of the four paintings stolen? Is this their calling card for a ransom demand? It's not likely that the masked … [Read more...] about Bührle Update: Two Found, Two to Go

It's a good thing the art pundits had a week to expound on all the possible reasons why thieves might target art museums. And it now looks like Randy Kennedy was more on target than he knew when he quipped in yesterday's NY Times that "many art thieves are simply not the sharpest grappling hooks in the toolbag." The Associated Press reports: Swiss media reported Monday that … [Read more...] about News Flash: Bührle Collection Lost-and-(Possibly) Found

Cai Guo-Qiang, "Inopportune: Stage One," 2004, at MASS MoCA The Guggenheim's Cai Guo-Qiang: I Want to Believe retrospective doesn't open until Friday, but already the big guns of art journalism have jumped the gun with major profiles of the gunpowder king---Arthur Lubow in yesterday's NY Times Magazine and Peter Schjeldahl in next week's New Yorker (online now). But there seems … [Read more...] about Cai Guo-Qiang Time: Dueling Magazine Profiles; MASS MoCA Snub

The Bührle-inspired speculation on why thieves steal art from museums continues today, with an article by Randy Kennedy in the NY Times "Week in Review" section that is informed by some real reporting. But before we discuss Kennedy's Profiles in (Criminal) Courage, let's get to what's really entertaining about this article---the decision of the Times' photo editors, once again, … [Read more...] about Art Thieves and NY Times Photo Editors: What Are They Thinking?

Opponents to the proposed sale of four paintings from Randolph College's Maier Museum failed to meet today's deadline to add $500,000 to the $500,000 already posted to secure until May 10 a temporary injunction against the sale. The Virginia Supreme Court rejected the opponents' request that it accept $500,000 as the full amount for the temporary injunction. This means that the … [Read more...] about News Flash: Court to Lift Injunction Against Maier Sales

I admit it: I've been neglecting you, art-lings, while focusing on my mainstream-media work this week. So here's a quick rundown of some recent news: ---Let's start with today. I know you all read the NY Times arts pages, but did you miss the lead sentence in a story for today's Business Section, "Municipalities Feel Pinch as Another Debt Market Falters"? Julie Creswell and … [Read more...] about Links to Revive Tink: Met Debt, MoMA Notables, White-Funded Institute’s First Show, Wadsworth Directorship, Thieves’ Motives

---In the wake of the theft of four paintings from the Bührle Collection in Zurich, we've had a lot of random speculation about whether it was calculated theft-to-order, clueless amateurs who didn't know they can't sell these paintings, etc., etc. Now comes a useful follow-up: a recap of 14 major art heists during the past 22 years. What's interesting is that in seven of the … [Read more...] about Art Police Blotter: Theft, Smuggling, Manslaughter

Hilary Ballon First Mariët Westermann. Now Hilary Ballon [via]. An architectural historian who taught for 20 years at Columbia University (where she was professor of art history and archaeology), and who was also curator of last year's well received three-part exhibition, Robert Moses and the Modern City, Ballon is now associate vice chancellor for academic programs and campus … [Read more...] about Brain Drain to Abu Dhabi, Continued

While I raided the Los Angeles County Museum of Art's website, the indispensable Jori Finkel was engaged in a far more sweeping raid, excavating Ban Chiang objects from websites of museums around the country. Although they likely didn't acquire these pieces through the particular sources who are now subject to federal investigation, major museums around the country appear to … [Read more...] about Major U.S. Museums Have a Ban Chiang Problem

The Museum of Contemporary Art/Denver's new David Adjaye-designed building, which opened Oct. 28, bills itself on its website as "a fiscally responsible project. The construction cost for the new building is $16.3 million." But fiscal responsibility appears to have declined into fiscal difficulty: Paula Moore of the Denver Business Journal reports: Several contractors who … [Read more...] about More Denver Museum Building Woes

Critic Peter Schjeldahl, in his current New Yorker piece---"European Tour: New galleries demonstrate Philippe de Montebello's method"---perpetuates a common misconception about the Metropolitan Museum director's modus operandi. Favorably (but somewhat belatedly) describing the museum's recently expanded and reconfigured installation of 19th- and early 20th-century European … [Read more...] about Philippe de Montebello’s Unobtrusive Curatorial Interventions

I've now had a chance to peruse Davidson County Chancellor Ellen Hobbs Lyle's Feb. 8 "Memorandum and Order" in the Fisk University Stieglitz Collection case, in which she barred any sales from the collection. It's clear that the judge based her decision on the very principle---donor intent---that Alice Walton unconvincingly tried to appropriate in her campaign to purchase a … [Read more...] about Frisking Fisk: Parsing O’Keeffe’s Angry Letter, and What Should Happen Next