Lee Rosenbaum's cultural commentary

As you know, I can't link to the Wall Street Journal's subscribers-only site, but I AM allowed to post the text of my article. I'll again do it in two parts, so as not to tax the short attention spans of hyperactive blog readers. (It's on today's "Leisure & Arts" page, D10, for those of you who still turn pages, instead of clicking hyperlinks. Online WSJ subscribers can find it … [Read more...] about My Article on the Boston ICA in Today’s WSJ—Part I

CultureGrrl told you more than a month ago that MoMA was talking to real estate developers who wanted to buy MoMA-owned land adjacent to the museum. They were discussing "the possibility of constructing a mixed-use building that would combine private commercial functions with more space for MoMA, probably to be used as galleries," I reported then. Now the deal's been … [Read more...] about MoMA Sells Its Plot and Plots New Galleries

Linda Sandler of Bloomberg today reported Sotheby's year-end auction totals. Worldwide sales in 2006 totaled $3.66 billion, compared to $2.69 billion in 2005; Sales in North America were $1.84 billion and $1.21 billion, respectively. Go to Sotheby's website for more detailed breakdowns---by month and by geographical area, as well as totals for individual sales. You can find … [Read more...] about More Details on Sotheby’s Year-End Sales Totals

On Friday the Wall Street Journal published six examples from what must have been an outpouring of letters from blog defenders, responding to the Dec. 20 anti-blog screed by Joseph Rago, the WSJ's assistant editorial features editor (discussed by CultureGrrl here). The WSJ's Letters editor captured the spirit of the exasperated correspondents with this headline: Print This: … [Read more...] about WSJ’s Blog Flogger Is Flogged Back

CultureGrrl didn't make Tyler's list of Top Ten Art Blogs this year. Guess I'll just have to try harder. And I thought I was a contender! Walker Off Center (where Tyler's list was published): Please have a look at this rookie. Do you have any designations for Best New Art Blogger? … [Read more...] about CultureGrrl Must Be Number 11

I looked at my blog last night and saw that the font gremlins had somehow transformed all the type of every post (except for my most recent one) into boldface. This is a real problem, because the only way I distinguish long quotes is by rendering them in boldface (rather than in quotations). This already caused some confusion for Regina Hackett, art critic of the Seattle … [Read more...] about First CultureGrrl Glitch of the New Year

I made a list and checked it twice: art stories that raised questions in 2006, which need to be answered in 2007. Here's a mischievous list of hypothetical New Year's resolutions by 10 artworld players who have been naughty or insufficiently nice: Malcolm Rogers: I will hire more guards for the Boston Museum of Fine Arts and see to it that they are better trained. Ronald … [Read more...] about Artworld Luminaries’ 2007 Resolutions

… [Read more...] about COMING NEXT: ARTWORLD LUMINARIES’ 2007 RESOLUTIONS

Actually, it's been only seven months...but so many memorable moments! The post attracting the most hits was: Who Should Succeed Philippe at the Met? I guess my readers include a multitude of Metropolitan Museumologists. More surprisingly (and to my chagrin), the post with the longest legs---continuing to be hit by many new readers long after it was published---was the one … [Read more...] about The Year in CultureGrrl

Former J. Paul Getty Trust board member Barbara Fleischman responds to my previous post on Marion True's biting letter to the Getty: Perhaps, finally, the real story of where the responsibility rests in an institution will come out. Those of us who know how limited a curator's power is in making acquisitions can perhaps take some comfort in hearing the truth at last. … [Read more...] about BlogBack: Barbara Fleischman on Marion True’s Missive

"Felcholino," the LA Times' cultural-news equivalent of the Washington Post's "Woodstein" of Watergate fame, have done it again: Jason Felch and Ralph Frammolino have obtained a copy of a Dec. 18 letter written by the J. Paul Getty Museum's former antiquities curator, Marion True, to the Getty Trust's chief executive Deborah Marrow, museum director Michael Brand and spokesman … [Read more...] about Letter from Getty Ex-Curator: Getty Plays Marion True False

Francesco Rutelli's Mixed-Up Message Wrapped inside glistening paper that he inscribed with wishes for a Peaceful Christmas ("Sereno Natale"), Italian Culture Minister Francesco Rutelli sent this ingenious card (above), which presented recipients with a a bit of a puzzle: Its four sections have to be taken apart and reassembled to spell "Il Dialogo" (Dialogue). The flipside … [Read more...] about A Very Rutelli Christmas and a Bloggy New Year!

Heather Mills called the police last night over the theft of $19.5 million in art, including works by Picasso and Renoir, from the country estate she shared with singer/songwriter Paul McCartney. Turns out her estranged husband "had taken the paintings and reprogrammed the estate's alarm codes, and informed her Thursday night by text message," according to the Associated Press. … [Read more...] about We Can’t Work It Out: McCartney Wants the Picasso

Nikolai Zavadsky, husband of Larisa Zavadskaya, deceased curator of the State Hermitage Museum, will "stand trial on charges he stole art objects from the Hermitage with his late wife," Reuters reports. The Russian Prosecutor-General has charged Zavadsky in the "theft of 77 objects from the museum's department of Russian cultural history. Some 221 objects were discovered … [Read more...] about Husband of Deceased Hermitage Curator to Be Tried for Thefts

A staff member at the National Gallery of Art, who deals with exhibitions and collections, comments on More Thoughts on "Gross Clinic": I work at the National Gallery of Art and I have to say I am thrilled that our bid for the Eakins was blocked. Here's why: First, we were planning to spend a large chunk of our acquisition funds for a painting that we would not even entirely … [Read more...] about Anonymous Blogback on the Philadelphia Eakins Saga