Lee Rosenbaum's cultural commentary

It's the auction houses' job, during the run-up to the big spring sales, to hype the robust state of the art market and the importance of works being offered. But while there are some notable highlights, there's nothing to "Scream" about in this spring's major Impressionist/modern sales at Sotheby's and Christie's, scheduled for tonight and tomorrow night, … [Read more...] about Whither the Impressionist/Modern Art Market? Auction House PR Machines in Overdrive (with video)

In a series of tweets (with photos) that I posted @CultureGrrl earlier today, I essentially said all I'm going to say about the Metropolitan Museum's disheveled, disjointed, dismaying Punk: Chaos to Couture (May 9-Aug. 14). Here's my first of several salvos against a show that I put down as "theatrics without substance": My photo, taken near the entrance to the … [Read more...] about Debunking “Punk”: Metropolitan Museum’s Exhibition from (Richard) Hell

Here's the announcement that the art scribe tribe has been eagerly awaiting: Thomas P. Campbell, director and CEO of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, announced today the appointment of Cynthia Round to the newly created position of senior vice president, marketing and external relations.  Ms. Round will join the museum on June 3....Reporting to her will be communications and … [Read more...] about Brandishing the Brand: United Way’s Cynthia Round Becomes Metropolitan Museum’s New Senior VP

Once again, it's "in with the new, out with the old" today at the Barnes Foundation, which reopened almost a year ago in its new digs in Philadelphia. As I write this, the scribe tribe is gathering (without me) at the Barnes for the press preview of what the foundation bills as its "first contemporary art exhibition in 90 years" (a year after the Barnes was founded). … [Read more...] about So Much for the “Plain People”: Barnes Foundation’s Ellsworth Kelly Show Accompanied by Admission Hike

The Metropolitan didn't only (partially) acquire the Mishneh Torah from the Michael and Judy Steinhardt collection of Judaica today. It later scooped up two lots from Sotheby's auction of the Steinhardt trove (as reported in the auction house's post-sale press release): ---Large (13" diameter) Italian parcel-gilt silver Torah crown, Venice, c. 1740-50, $857,000 (with buyer's … [Read more...] about Metropolitan Museum Goes on Shopping Spree at Sotheby’s Steinhardt Judaica Sale

Was it all just a charade? It seems clear to me now, from my revelatory discussion on Friday with Michael Steinhardt, that Sotheby's must have had more than an inkling that the Frankfurt Mishneh Torah was going to be withdrawn from this morning's Steinhardt Judaica auction, even as its experts were touting to the press and prospective bidders the sale's purported star lot. … [Read more...] about Monetizing a Museum’s Imprimatur: Mishneh Torah Missteps UPDATED

My informed guess proved correct. This just in from the Israel Museum and Metropolitan Museum: The Israel Museum, Jerusalem, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art announced today the joint acquisition of one of the finest illuminated Hebrew manuscripts ever created, a rare handwritten copy of the Mishneh Torah by Maimonides, one of the most important rabbinical figures of the … [Read more...] about Auction Preempt: Israel and Metropolitan Museums Jointly Purchase Michael Steinhardt’s “Mishneh Torah”

I was surprised and irked Wednesday when I learned that the star offering in this Monday's New York auction of the Michael and Judy Steinhardt's Judaica collection---the 15th-century illustrated Frankfurt Mishneh Torah (presale estimate: $4.5-6 million) had not only been proudly displayed on "extended loan" for the past three years in the permanent-collection galleries of the … [Read more...] about Will Mishneh Torah Go to Israel Museum (Instead of Sotheby’s Auction)? Michael Steinhardt’s, James Snyder’s Enigmatic Responses (with video)

Proving that the best-laid plans sometimes go dismayingly astray, the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, MA, has suddenly found itself in the stricken position of mourning the death of architect Rick Mather, who was chosen in 2011 to design PEM's 175,000-square-foot expansion, scheduled for completion in 2017. Here's all that a spokesperson for the PEM's understandably dumbstruck … [Read more...] about Monroe, Safdie Are Mum on Peabody Essex’s Expansion After Architect Rick Mather’s Death

As reported on Rick Mather's website, the London-based architect died Saturday after a short illness. He was 75. Not as renowned as some starchitects, but admired for his tasteful expansions of the Ashmolean Museum at the University of Oxford and the Dulwich Picture Gallery in London, as well as his masterplan for London's Southbank Centre arts complex, he was just beginning … [Read more...] about London Architect Rick Mather, Designer of Virginia MFA and Peabody Essex Expansions, Dies

The description of LA MOCA's benefit gala last night, contained in a press release from the museum that just landed in my inbox, requires little comment. It operates as its own parody. In her raised-eyebrow recap of last night's festivities, Jori Finkel of the LA Times called the extravaganza, "one weird night." Particularly strange, she said, was "a fake appearance by … [Read more...] about “Everybody Must Get Stoned”: LA MOCA’s Far-Out Gala

This year has been designated The Year of Italian Culture, bringing to our shores important loans from Italian museums. One of those, Velázquez's "Portrait of Francesco I d'Este," 1639, has just been accorded a room of its own at the Metropolitan Museum (to July 14), on loan from Modena's Galleria Estense. The lending museum has been closed due to extensive damage (not, … [Read more...] about The Year of Italian Culture: Metropolitan Museum Gets Velázquez, Will Get “Boxer” (with video)

On Apr. 23, the U.S. Copyright Office will conduct a public hearing on the pros and cons of possible federal legislation to mandate artists' resale royalties. In advance of the hearing, the Copyright Office invited statements from interested parties. Some 59 comments are posted here. Among them---an astonishing missive from the Association of Art Museum Directors, finding fault … [Read more...] about AAMD Argues Against Artists’ Royalties in Statement to Copyright Office; Hearing to Be Held Tuesday

It's no secret that I haven't always seen eye-to-eye with the Washington Post's Philip Kennicott, the art-and-architecture critic who on Monday was named to receive the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for criticism. But reasonable critics can disagree, and it's good to see art criticism once again getting the spotlight. The Pulitzer had now gone to three art critics in the past five … [Read more...] about Score One for Art Criticism: Philip Kennicott’s Pulitzer Prize