Real Clear Arts

Judith H. Dobrzynski on Culture

More Troubles For DIA-Detroit

Another reason why the Detroit bankruptcy-Detroit Institute of Arts deal must become reality as soon as possible. On Friday, an opponent of the deal — a bond insurer named Syncora — said it was filing a subpoena “seeking all documents related to the museum’s art collection and records detailing its financial performance in a move that amplifies the tension over the DIA’s future.”

Detroit-Institute-ArtsBad news — even it if doesn’t stick. It could mean endless work for the DIA.

According to an article in the Detroit Free Press headlined Bankruptcy creditor hits DIA with massive subpoena for artwork records, Syncora is seeking:

■ Documents detailing the DIA’s donation to the city in 1919.

■ All records detailing the DIA’s collection and ownership documents on every piece.

■ All financial documents on the DIA’s annual performance, its tax records and attendance figures.

â–  Records listing all past and present members of the DIA.

â–  Internal studies on visitor trends, audience surveys and special exhibit performance.

■ All documents related to the Christie’s evaluation.

â–  Any appraisals or insurance records on DIA artwork.

â–  Any communications the city has had with the museum about selling art.

■ Documents related to the DIA nonprofit’s 1997 operating agreement with the city, which gave the nonprofit control of the building and its artwork.

■ Documents related to the DIA’s collections management policy.

â–  Records connected with the proposed transfer of the DIA and its property to the nonprofit as part of the grand bargain and bankruptcy restructuring.

 

 

Juxtapositions: Portugal, Miro, Detroit, Russian Oligarchs

The Detroit bankruptcy and the fate of the Detroit Institute of Arts is making waves in Europe, just as Kevyn Orr — the city’s emergency manager — made remarks that show, finally, he understands what might have happened. And still might, if he and Gov. Rick Snyder waver. Creditors have not yet given up hope for a sale of the art.

detroit-institute-ofThe European connection was detailed in an article posted on The New York Times website on March 26 – Portugal’s Move to Sell Miró Works Raises Debate of Preservation vs. Privatization – which referenced Portugal’s move to hold an auction, at Christie’s, of works by Joan Miró. The original sale was cancelled, although Christie’s has now said that the sale will go ahead in June. But as the NYT article noted, in a quote, the very prospect raised broader concerns:

 “The obsession with eliminating everything that is public is leading the government to go further down the privatization road, and perhaps they consider paintings to be part of the same strategy,” said Gabriela Canavilhas, a Socialist lawmaker and Portugal’s former culture minister. “But even in Detroit, which was declared bankrupt, their final decision was not to sell any art.”

And, as a gallery owner said,

“When you sell something like the electricity company or the postal service, you sell the ownership, but the services still remain here and available to citizens,” Mr. [Carlos] Cabral Nunes said. “When you auction art, you make sure nobody in Portugal will ever benefit from it, so this is an irreparable destruction of our patrimony.”

Orr, on the other hand, showed a greater understanding in his recent comments in a speech at the University of Michigan. Mentioning the possibility of a “yard sale” of the DIA’s art, he said:

If you don’t think that can happen, there are many sovereign wealthy, Russian oligarchs, Brazilian millionaires who are calling and inquiring” about art…

Read more here, in the Detroit Free Press.

The situation even now keeps changing, however, and the Freep printed a later story saying Orr was speaking metaphorically — all the better, in some ways, because it does show he gets it. The new article — here — said:

…April, there will be hearings in which creditors will have a chance to argue that the city should consider selling art to pay off its debt. While Orr remains the only actor who can sell the art in a municipal bankruptcy, creditors can apply pressure and Rhodes can refuse to approve Orr’s restructuring plan if the judge believes the city is unfairly shielding assets….

Bottom line: Until a final deal is reached between Orr and creditors that passes muster with Rhodes, the DIA remains in limbo, ready to go to court if necessary to protect its collection from Russian oligarchs, Brazilian millionaires, American collectors and dealers and anyone else looking to get in on some once-in-a-lifetime action.

That is the said truth, but Orr’s words are still a positive.

Delaware Deaccessioning: Pertinent Questions

DelawareThe Delaware Art Museum’s announcement that it will sell as many as four works of art, to raise about $30 million for repaying debt and replenishing its endowment is a bad idea, based on what I have read. It also raises many questions. (The basic facts are here in the most complete article, from the News-Journal.)

  • Why would this decision be made now, before the board recruits a director to replace Danielle Rice, who left last summer? Yes, it may remove the difficult decision from the new director, who can start the job with a clean record. But this will certainly hamper recruitment.
  • How could the four chosen works for sale both raise $30 million and be “selected to have “minimal impact” on the museum’s 12,500-piece collection.? That total is way too high to not leave a hole — ask museums like Toledo and Cleveland, which have sold several works in recent years legitimately and raised nowhere near as much.
  • Isn’t that goal ever more difficult since the museum pledged not to sell any donated works, which represent 90% of its collection?
  • How bad has management been in the last few years, as it allowed the museum to lose its credit? And where was the board — how could it have allowed such a deterioration?
  • Was the expansion the debt financed really necessary, or was Delaware simply following the museum crowd?
  • Museum CEO Mike Miller said “We talked to every white knight we could think of” but could raise no funds — why does this museum have such few supporters?
  • Why is Miller, “the museum’s former part-time chief financial officer and former chief financial officer for DuPont Merck Pharmaceutical Co.,” but with no art background, running the show?
  • Does anyone believe Miller when he says that, with this deaccession, “We really think we’re setting the [museum] up for the next 100 years”?
  • Most of all, is this really “a last resort,” as Miller put it?

That, of course, is the crux of the whole situation. I have never drawn a bright red line, to use the current geopolitical phrasing, against all deaccessioning unless proceeds go to more art. But existing sanctions by the Association of Art Museum Directors, as well-meaning as they may be, are not enough of a deterrent. That is why I advocated arbitration by an outside body — so a museum alone cannot assert that it is in extremis — in a 2010 op-ed article in The New York Times. “What if a museum had to argue its case for de-accessioning art before an impartial arbitrator?” I wrote. 

I got one thing wrong in that — I thought that AAMD could run the arbitration process, but I no longer do. Instead, it would have to be my second thought in the piece — “a state agency, a charities bureau or the attorney general’s office, whichever oversees nonprofits.”

Meantime, the Delaware Art Museum should start answering the above, and more, questions.

109 Minutes With Tom Campbell

That’s how long Carl Swanson spent with the director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art* — not sure when — to deliver a short “encounter” feature in the current issue of New York magazine.

TEDtalkKeeping in mind that the article’s readership is probably not that attuned to the Met (34% of readers are 18‒34 and 31% are not New Yorkers), the write-up had only a few surprising assertions. The first surprise was this paragraph:

To this day, despite that blockbuster Alexander McQueen exhibit, his travels in the TED-talk-and-Davos circuit, the grand reopening of the redone Islamic and European Paintings galleries, the tearing up of those Fifth Avenue fountains, and the coming high-profile annexation of the Whitney Museum’s Madison Avenue building, he’s not particularly recognizable, even in that way that a New York executive-suite power-nerd can become a boldface name.

I really was under the impression that many of the those — reconfiguration of the Islamic and European galleries, talks that led to the Whitney accession — were begun under Philippe de Montebello.

Speaking of the European paintings rehang, Campbell says he counts Bruegel’s The Harvesters as one of his favorite paintings and “even had The Harvesters rehung in a better position.” He added: “Now we’ve got a space where I can really enjoy it.” I was also under the impression that Keith Christiansen, chairman of the European paintings department, masterminded the reinstallation, but maybe Campbell intervened.

Campbell also said he had “a special key” that opens every door in the museum, except “Of course, I always discover the door it doesn’t work on is the one that I really need to get through.” Interesting that such a key exists.

Here are a few more passages that surprised me, for one reason or another:

  • “Museum patrons used to flatter themselves as guardians of timeless masterpieces, but now they get most excited about the new stuff, like everybody else in the art world. Contemporary is, Campbell notes understatedly, ‘very hot right now.’ ” The part I boldfaced seems like a vast overstatement to me, maybe even wishful thinking?
  • “There is another gallery he wants to redo (the current color he dismisses as “dog vomit”).” How did he let that color get approved?
  • And sadly, in the members’-only lounge: “When we get up to leave, the cashier looks confused, not recognizing Campbell, who explains patiently, and not for the first time, ‘I’m the director.’ ”

Read the whole article here.

*I consult to a foundation that supports the Met.

Dubai Ruler Orders Four New Museums

Before I was diverted yesterday to write about a Dubai auction, I was planning to share news of the Dubai subway system. It’s about to become a museum or, rather, a set of museums.

167896079-507x310The state news agency there recently reported that Dubai’s ruler Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum wants themed museums in the subways as inspiration. As Gulf Business wrote:

“We want to inspire and communicate with every employee on his way to work, every student on his way to pursuing education and every tourist visiting Dubai,” said Sheikh Mohammed. “We want to transfer Dubai Metro stations to museums accompanying passengers to all destinations.”

The project starts with four stations, and each will have a theme:

Islamic arts and arabic calligraphy museum, inventions museum, contemporary art museum and visual art museum will be launched during phase one.

The Islamic art and calligraphy museum will include a collection of Islamic artworks and a display of manuscripts, ceramics and jewellery along with calligraphy paintings.

The Inventions Museum will highlight the most important human inventions in different fields such as engineering, mathematics, medicine, geography, astronomy and other fields. The Contemporary Art Museum will display paintings, design, graphic illustrations and models done by contemporary artists from around the world.

The visual arts museum will screen movies and documentaries highlighting the work of contemporary artists. It will also give visitors a chance to exhibit their work.

Gulf Business says that the Dubai subway systems handled more than 137 million passengers last year, and eventually this idea will be extended through the entire system.  It did not say who would design or implement this plan, or what artists might be involved.

But the sheikh wants it done fast: there four will be “completed within a year and will be launched during Art Dubai 2015.”

Yes, I know other subways systems have art — Paris and New York, to name two. This sounds more extensive. Could be nifty.

Photo Credit: Courtesy of Gulf Business