Lee Rosenbaum's cultural commentary

Bronze Etruscan chariot, inlaid with ivory, 2nd quarter of the 6th century B.C., Metropolitan Museum of Art While we breathlessly await today's repatriation press conference by Signor Rutelli, let's talk about another Italian object-of-desire, the Metropolitan Museum's Etruscan chariot. (It was claimed not by Italy, but by the village of Monteleone di Spoleto.) As you may … [Read more...] about Antiquities Dealer Questions Authenticity of Metropolitan Museum’s Chariot

Philippe de Montebello, at a cooler moment The Associated Press reports that the Metropolitan Museum was evacuated at 4 p.m. today because of a brief power outage in Manhattan and the Bronx: "Visitors were forced to sit on the outside steps in the sweltering heat," according to AP. Gee, weren't they allowed to go somewhere else and maybe get a cold drink? Is Philippe really … [Read more...] about Metropolitan Museum Evacuated; Visitors Shvitz on the Steps

Logo for Andrew Sullivan's blog, "The Daily Dish" Veteran cultural and political commentor Andrew Sullivan, in his blog for The Atlantic magazine, The Daily Dish, today quotes from my Art Basel post on "Snap-Judgment Art" (who knew he read me?) and mints his own coinage, "Speed-Purchasing Art" (a takeoff on "speed dating," I suppose). Sullivan is a fearsome speed-blogger, … [Read more...] about What I DID Like at Art Basel

Who needs to go to Washington? Today you can attend yesterday's uncomfortable Senate hearing on Smithsonian governance reform from the comfort of your own desk chair. Just click here. I think Sen. Diane Feinstein was a bit hotheaded in insisting that the Board of Regents find a new Smithsonian chief executive yesterday. These things do, appropriately, take time. And this is a … [Read more...] about Smithsonian’s Black Tuesday at the Senate Office Building

...and the kitchen sink. It's a bit late for me to provide you with detailed follow-ups on all of the above stories, which have perversely developed in my absence. But I can make partial amends by giving you select links to the recent news coverage of the above-mentioned topics, to make sure you're up to speed. (Actually, you're probably more alert than this jet-lagged … [Read more...] about Follow-Ups on CultureGrrl News: Barnes, Fisk, Randolph-Macon, Smithsonian, Grassley, Afghanistan…

Italian Culture Minister Francesco Rutelli Just when Karol Wight gets the "acting" removed from her title as antiquities curator at the Getty (as reported in today's NY Times), The Great Repatriator girds his loins to stride again through our land. This just in from ANSA, the Italian news agency: [Italian Culture Minister Francesco] Rutelli is off to the United States this week … [Read more...] about Rutelli Alert! Francesco Returns to USA, Seeking Objects

Dealer Ernst Beyeler (seated) in his booth at Art Basel I've always wanted to go to Art Basel. Now I have. But I left the cavernous Swiss Exhibition Center with the same reaction I had at the Armory Show in New York last February: I JUST CAN'T LOOK AT ART THAT WAY! I got there a week ago Saturday, several days after the VIPs had come and gone, so most of the art I saw probably … [Read more...] about Art Babel: The Instant Messages of Snap-Judgment Art

Did you all miss me, artlings? Not only was I sojourning in Europe, but my Internet died the day before I left (so I had to post my leave-taking remotely) and it was still down for two days after I got back. My burned-out modem is being replaced as I type this. It must have been overwhelmed by all those hot stories! I'm now back to posting, but more sporadically than during the … [Read more...] about The Return of CultureGrrl

Elisabetta Povoledo, in her NY Times article last week about the never-ending trial in Italy of former Getty Museum antiquities curator Marion True, seriously muddied the waters with her lead-off quote about the actions of private collectors in acquiring allegedly "looted objects" and later donating them to museums: It was a "sophisticated method of laundering," a prosecution … [Read more...] about Marion True’s Continuing Trial: NY Times Mixes Up the “Laundry”

Here's what J.Tucker Martin, the director of communications for Virginia Attorney General Bob McDonnell, says about the AG's involvement in the possible art disposals from the Maier Museum: Our office has been in contact with counsel for both sides of this issue, the college and the alumnae. We will continue to stay in contact with them, and in fact Attorney General McDonnell … [Read more...] about Virginia Attorney General on the Maier Museum

---Carol Vogel gives a comprehensive and cogent round-up of the Venice Biennale, in today's NY Times. Randy's been Dandy, but Vogel's the Mogul. ---Malcolm Warner is named deputy director of the Kimbell Museum, and will become acting director once Timothy Potts leaves for the Fitzwilliam Museum at Cambridge, Sept. 1. Clearly the Kimbell feels that the window for "transition" … [Read more...] about Follow-Ups on CultureGrrl News: Biennale, Kimbell, Hirst Skull, Barnes, Crystal Bridges

"Artemis and the Stag," sold from the collection of the Albright-Knox Gallery The thing that distresses me most about the mega-millions raked in by Buffalo's Albright-Knox Gallery in its series of art disposals at Sotheby's (including the $25.5 million hammer price, against a $5-7 million presale estimate, for "Artemis and the Stag," above, at Thursday's antiquities sale) is … [Read more...] about The Albright-Knox Pox: Will It Be Catching?

Lifting the Lipchitz Not to Kabul, nor even (yet) to Basel. It's off to Cornell, for my husband's XXth college reunion. (I'm not going to fill in the blanks!) I hear they're celebrating the return of "Song of the Vowels," the restored Lipchitz sculpture that I saw nearly every day, because I nerdishly trudged to the library nearly every day. (It was right outside the … [Read more...] about Where in the World is Lee Going?

My doubts about whether the chief source for the NY Times' Afghanistan antiquities article yesterday was adequately vetted for reliability made me think again about the lamentable three-week silence of the paper's new public editor, Clark Hoyt. My concern for his (and his mission's) welfare prompted me to reread the the May 4 official announcement of his appointment, where I … [Read more...] about No News is Good News for the NY Times Public Editor

There are so many problematic aspects surrounding Robin Pogrebin's story in yesterday's NY Times about the allegedly "unconscionable" financial arrangements between the National Geographic Society and the government of Afghanistan, for a proposed tour of that country's Bactrian hoard, that it's hard to know where to begin. Critics cited in the article charge that Afghanistan is … [Read more...] about Afghanistan Attack: Who is Lynne Munson?