Philly's Skyline Conundrum Philadelphia's skyline has always been a bit understated for an American city of its size (due in large part to a longstanding unofficial rule that no building could be taller than the statue of William Penn that stands atop the magnificent city hall) but ever since city officials began allowing developers greater leeway in the 1980s, Philly has been getting vertical. Inga Saffron says that the proliferation of skyscrapers isn't necessarily a bad thing, but that the city's distinct lack of an urban plan is a serious threat to Philadelphia's distinctive look and feel. "The main issue is no longer about how high Philadelphia's towers should go. It's about guiding what happens on the ground." Philadelphia Inquirer 03/31/06

M'm! M'm! Expensive! New York art dealer Irving Blum long ago donated most of his collection of Andy Warhol's pop art depictions of Campbell's Soup cans to the Museum of Modern Art, but he apparently held back at least one work, from the days before Warhol discovered silkscreening. "'Small Torn Campbell's Soup Can (Pepper Pot),' an early hand-painted work from 1962, will be auctioned at Christie's sale of postwar and contemporary art in New York on May 9. It is expected to fetch $10 million to $15 million." The New York Times 03/31/06

'Fessing Up To Ownership Questions "A few museum-goers are starting to ask questions about the antiquities in their museums: How did they end up here, despite being considered stolen property under U.S. law, foreign law and the 1970 UNESCO treaty protecting cultural heritage? In many cases, the museums don't know for sure — or aren't saying." USAToday 03/30/06

Blockbuster Art In Seattle's Music Museum Billionaire Paul Allen shows off a bit of his (reputedly terrific) art collection in a show at his Experience Music Project in Seattle. "Allen's $250 million museum could use the sales boost. Since opening in 2000, annual visits have dropped from a peak of 531,000 to 378,000 last year. Advance ticket sales for the $8 art show have been "brisk". Entrance to the entire museum is $33." Bloomberg.com 03/30/06

Maastricht Gives Lie To Shortage Claim Conventional wisdom has it that the supply of Old Masters for sale is drying up. Don't tell that to the participants of the Maastricht Fair. "Once again, exhibitors proved they are still able to find amazing works of top quality across a range of fields. Where else can you see, under one (admittedly vast) roof, two major Rembrandts, a Fra Angelico fresh from a show at the Metropolitan Museum of New York, a Clouet, a whole kunstkammer of amber including a piece from the lost Amber Room at Tsarskoye Selo, an elephant folio of Audubon’s Birds of America, and a throne from the Royal Palace of Warsaw?" The Art Newspaper 03/30/06

Congress To Smithsonian: Make Your Own Money Officials from the Smithsonian Institution were on Capitol Hill yesterday to testify to the deteriorating condition of the landmark D.C. museum complex, and to beg Congress for more money to make repairs. In response, at least one Democratic Congressman is strongly urging the Smithsonian to scrap its free-admission policy in order to raise the money on its own. Washington Post 03/30/06

British Dealer Drawn Into True/Hecht Trial "The activities of Robin Symes, a London antiquities dealer who has done business with many of the world's top collectors, came into sharp focus on Wednesday at the trial of Marion True, a former curator at the J. Paul Getty Museum, and Robert Hecht, an American dealer." Specifically, prosecutors are bringing to light details of "Mr. Symes's elaborate use of offshore companies and warehouses to buy and sell ancient artworks. Italians contend that some of these works were illegally excavated and exported." The New York Times 03/30/06

Museum Works to Fix Shattered Vases broken By Visitor Conservators at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge are working restore Qing vases that were shattered when a museum viisitor tripped and smashed into them. What will happen when they're glued back together? They'll go back on display. "These vases were given to us in the 1940s and have been in the same place for 50 years. Some 9 million people have walked past them and this is the first time they have been damaged. We have to look at the risk in perspective." The Guardian (UK) 03/30/06

An Islamic Show in A Political Dance "Without Boundary" is "the most important exhibit MoMA has launched in at least a decade, and it’s the first exhibition of contemporary art from the Islamic world in a major American museum since 9/11." But "the exhibition is a reminder of the difficulties that museums face when it comes to merging — or not — art and politics." New York Observer 03/29/06

Journalist Testifies Against Curator British journalist Peter Watson has testified against former Getty curator Marion True, linking her to an Italian smuggler. Bloomberg.com 03/29/06

Barnes Gets $25 Million From State For Move "At a news conference in the Grand Ballroom of the Park Hyatt at the Bellevue, Gov. Rendell announced that the state would contribute $25 million toward construction of a new home for the Merion museum on the site of the Youth Study Center, between 20th and 21st Streets. The grant announced yesterday is one of the largest such grants ever dispensed from Harrisburg." Philadelphia Inquirer 03/29/06

Sotheby's Makes A China Bet "Though still in its infancy, the appetite for contemporary Chinese art is booming in Europe and Asia. Betting that the trend is fast moving West, Sotheby's has put together a sale that includes some of China's hottest names. The auction house has timed it to coincide with Asia Week, the annual round of sales and exhibitions that draw dealers and collectors from across the globe to New York each spring." The New York Times 03/29/06

Johns Leads Museum Acquisitions List The Art Newspaper's annual museum acquisitions survey reveals latest trends in museum collecting. "In 2005, the overwhelming majority of museums chose to focus on established, mid-career and post-war artists, such as Ed Ruscha and Jasper Johns, whose artistic reputations are already secured. Leading the list of most sought-after artists in 2005 is modernist giant Jasper Johns, with five museums acquiring his work." The Art Newspaper 03/28/06

Gehry On A Broach Architect Frank Gehry unveils a new line of jewelry for Tiffany. "The 76-year-old architect, who reached a whole new level of fame on the silvery sails of Walt Disney Concert Hall and the Guggenheim Bilbao, is the first new artist to be introduced by Tiffany since Paloma Picasso in 1980. The collection is comprised of six series named after recurring motifs in Gehry's work: Fish, Torque, Axis, Fold, Equus and Orchid." Los Angeles Times 03/28/06

Berlin Biennial: A Story To Tell The Berlin Biennial is not just another mix-and-match show. "Flawed and frequently jarring it may be, but this is an important, timely exhibition. This is no survey show, no feebly themed free-for-all. It is not just another biennial. The curators have attempted to construct if not a narrative, then a journey." The Guardian (UK) 03/28/06

British Museum's MIA List The British Museum says that more than 2000 items are missing from its collection and that 28 items have been stolen in recent years. "While the thefts represent a tiny fraction of the 150 million items in the library's possession, the stolen items are valued at £100,000, with a number of rare maps and illustrated plates ripped from antique books by international thieves. A single plate cut from a 1522 volume on Pompeii is worth £45,000." The Guardian (UK) 03/27/06

After The Eye (Then What?) David Marks and Julia Barfield spent years getting the London Eye built. It's become a modern landmark icon. So what do you do as a followup? There is that problem of being typecast... The Guardian (UK) 03/27/06

British Museum's New Global Role “Until five or 10 years ago, almost all exhibitions took place in quite a small circuit of museums, in Europe and the US, and perhaps Japan and Korea. Now that has changed quite profoundly. We can take the collection to Africa, to China, and they can use it as they want, because in each case it has a different public to address, and a different story to tell.” Financial Times 03/27/06

Maxwell Anderson To Indianapolis Maxwell Anderson, former director of the Whitney Museum, has been named director of the Indianapolis Museum of Art. "At the IMA, Anderson will lead a multifaceted institution with a $325 million endowment; a $20 million annual operating budget; 320 employees; a collection of more than 50,000 artworks; and $74 million worth of expanded facilities." Indianapolis Star 03/27/06

Melbourne Erases Culture For Commonwealth Games "Melbourne is the proud capital of street painting with stencils. Its large, colonial-era walls and labyrinth of back alleys drip with graffiti that is more diverse and original than any other city in the world. Well, that was until a few weeks ago, when preparations for the Commonwealth games brought a tidal wave of grey paint, obliterating years of unique and vibrant culture overnight." The Guardian (UK) 03/24/06

Archiphobia - Aussies Have It Bad "Why is it that Australians, who think so much about design when choosing a new BMW, a Dyson vacuum cleaner, or a Dualit toaster, think so little about design when it comes to their homes? Why is it that only 3 per cent of Australian homes are designed by an architect? Why are we so archiphobic?" The Age (Melbourne) 03/26/06

Condo Developer Markets The Art A Toronto condo developer is "in the process of buying $700,000 worth of art from local galleries. Condo buyers will be invited to select their piece from the collection when the as-yet-undeveloped units hit the market in April. The idea was to offer an incentive that reflected the spirit of the art-rich neighbourhood. The question is, will this investment help ease the pang of gentrification for long-time residents?" Toronto Star 03/26/06

BBC Defends Spending On Art The BBC is defending itself against critics who are protesting the corporation spending £4m on art. "Well-known artists including Rachel Whiteread and Tracey Emin are among those who have been asked to produce artworks for the corporation under a programme of purchasing public art linked to the redevelopment of Broadcasting House in London." Scotland on Sunday 03/26/06

Wills Wins Australia's Biggest Art Prize Marcus Wills wins this year's Archibald Prize. "The Melbourne artist won the $35,000 prize for his portrait 'The Paul Juraszek Monolith (after Marcus Gheeraerts)', inspired by an etching by a Flemish engraver." Sydney Morning Herald 03/24/06

Tate Britain - Fighting For Identity "Tate Britain drew a record 1.73 million visitors last year with shows such as 'Turner Whistler Monet.' Yet many overlook its permanent display of Turners and Gainsboroughs, and forget that it hosts the Turner Prize contest and other contemporary-art events. As the museum turns six this month, it seeks to shed its dowdy image as a venue reserved for old-master shows." Bloomberg.com 03/23/06

Museum Attendance Up/Down In UK "Since scrapping entrance fees, the national galleries and museums that used to charge have attracted 5 million extra visitors. There were celebrations yesterday at the 67 per cent increase in numbers through the doors of institutions from the Science Museum in Manchester to the National Maritime Museum, London, since they axed their admission fees. But of all the national museums and galleries in England - those regarded as so significant they receive funding direct from Government - seven which had never charged have experienced a fall in visitors during the last four years. Overall attendance has risen by only two per cent since 2001 at the museums and galleries that were always free." The Independent (UK) 03/22/06

Architecture Students To Get Urban Exposure Ohio's Kent State University will move its entire graduate program in architectural studies to its Cleveland outpost "as soon as possible," according to the school's dean. "KSU has operated the Urban Design Collaborative in Cleveland since 1999," and the school wants all of its architecture students to work in an urban environment. Kent State's main campus is located 40 miles southeast of Cleveland. The Plain Dealer (Cleveland) 03/23/06

NY Hispanic Museum To Move Out Of Wash. Heights "The Hispanic Society of America, home to one of the largest collections of Hispanic cultural material outside Spain, has decided to move downtown [in Manhattan] from Washington Heights to draw more visitors and acquire the space it needs to display its art and artifacts... A proposal to move ahead with relocation plans received unanimous support from trustees at a meeting last month at the Prado Museum in Madrid. The two institutions have a close association." The New York Times 03/23/06

• Previously: Hispanic Society Moves Downtown New York's Hispanic Society is moving from its obscure upper Manhattan location to downtown. The Society is "probably the most unknown major museum in the US. Its holdings of Spanish art, decorative arts, photographs, rare books and manuscripts are the most extensive outside of Spain, and worth billions of dollars." The Art Newspaper 03/19/06

UK Proposes Higher Auction Taxes New proposed taxes will making buying art at auction more expensive in the UK. "The U.K. will tax the commission at the standard VAT rate of 17.5 percent, following a recent European Court of Justice ruling. Previously, businesses and individuals could use temporary import arrangements to defer the tax, which totaled 5 percent under the prior U.K. interpretation of European VAT law." Bloomberg.com 03/22/06

Foster Tabbed To Design Moscow Tower Moscow's mayor has endorsed plans to build a 600-meter tower designed by Norman Foster. "City authorities are understood to have wanted a distinctive skyscraper that could become a landmark similar to Lord Foster’s “Gherkin” — the headquarters of Swiss Re — in the City of London. The development includes the 430m high Federation Tower, due to be completed in 2008." The Times (UK) 03/21/06

Is It Time To Retire The Whitney Biennial? Christopher Knight says that the Whitney Biennial has become so dull and predictable as to make one question why it still exists. "The need for a national art survey disappeared long ago. What use does it have in a global art world characterized by broad public popularity in international urban centers, inexpensive travel, instant communications and a roaring marketplace? Even with work by 101 artists, as the show boasts this year, surely no one considers the biennial a reliable survey of anything." Los Angeles Times 03/22/06

A Crafts Museum Goes For Broke As New York's Museum of Arts and Design prepares to move into its opulent new home at 2 Columbus Circle in the heart of Midtown Manhattan, it needs to put a bitter battle over the historic preservation of the building behind it, and focus on revitalizing an institution that has struggled often throughout its history. "Big challenges lie ahead, for example meeting an operating budget that will jump to $6.9 million, an endowment goal of $20 million, and attendance and membership goals of 450,000 and 3,200, respectively." The New York Times 03/22/06

A Michelangelo Show You Can't Trust The British Museum has a big new Michelangelo show. But only three of the drawings in the show are universally accepted as his. This forces the viewer to see the show in an entirely different way. "Why has the museum accepted 50-year-old attributions, asks Richard Dorment." The Telegraph (UK) 03/21/06

Robert Hughes: Rembrandt Reconsidered "Rembrandt would be remembered as an extraordinary self-portraitist if he had died young at, say, forty-five. But he lived much longer and it is the work of his old age that one most admires: that intimate, unflinching scrutiny of his own sagging, lined, and bloated features, with the light shining from the potato nose and the thick paint: the face of a master, the face of a failure and a bankrupt. Life, and his own mismanagement of life, has bashed him but no one could say it has beaten him." New York Review of Books 04/03/06

Robert Hughes Sums Up Modernism "Modernism is something old that we look back on, not without nostalgia. Its ashtrays and dinner sets, the chrome-tube-and-leather-strap Marcel Breuer chairs, get revived and recirculated without comment. The idea of modernism connotes some kind of ideal and even quasi-official mindset. Seen in one light, it even suggests too much solidity: think of how the innumerable descendants and clones of Mies van der Rohe created, in their high, bland cliffs of steel and glass, the face of American corporate capitalism. That certainly wasn't the modernité Charles Baudelaire was thinking of in 1863." The Guardian (UK) 03/21/06

Rijksmuseum Reopening Delayed A Year Amsterdam's Rijksmuseum will reopen in 2009, a year behind schedule so added environmental checks can be done. "Work at Holland's biggest museum is due to start in 2007, including plans for a cycling route under the building. It shut in 2003 after an asbestos scare forced its indefinite closure." BBC 03/21/06

UK's Free Museum Policy Creates Surge Of Visitors "Since December 2001 there has been a 66% increase in visits to museums which once charged for entry. The rise comes despite a drop in visitor numbers as a result of the July bombings in London." 24Dash.com 03/21/06

Security Camera Images Of Tunick's Nudes Show Up For Sale Pictures of naked people participating in one of Spencer Tunick's photos of mass nudes have shown up for sale. The pictures are from security surveillance cameras. "We've spoken to a number of officers and police staff and as a result two members of police staff are in the process of being suspended." The Independent (UK) 03/21/06

Kenneth Baker Reports From Maastricht The European Fine Art Fair is still the gold standard for art fairs. "With seven- and eight-figure prices quoted wherever I inquired, I tried to make a mantra of John Russell's deathless line 'No amount of money is worth a great work of art.' But the big artistic thrills often came in modest -- though not modestly priced -- form, such as the Fragonard drawings shown by Agnew's of London and New York, two rare Charles Rennie Mackintosh watercolors offered by London's Fine Art Society..." San Francisco Chronicle 03/21/06

Toledo, Detroit Museums Go To Court Over Gauguin And Van Gogh Paintings The Detroit Institute of Arts and the Toledo Museum are in court to settle ownership issues surrounding a van Gogh and a Gauguin. "At stake is whether the pictures will remain in the museums' collections or whether the museums must return the works to the heirs or pay restitution. The paintings are worth an estimated $10 million to $15 million apiece in today's art market, based on auction records." Detroit Free Press 03/19/06

What Are Museums For, Anyway? "To those of us reared on the fogeyish assumption that a museum's collection is sacrosanct - that the British Museum will always have its Elgin Marbles and the Pitt Rivers its shrunken tribal heads - the idea of ancient vases being mauled and chipped by mobs of primary schoolchildren or Roman coin hoards being flogged off to fund the acquisition of a more socially relevant collection of graffiti art is indeed a pretty shocking one. But for the new breed of museum professional, this line of thinking is very much the fashionable orthodoxy." The Times (UK) 03/19/06

A Peruvian Monument That Might Not Be What It Seems "No one disputes that the structure, called the Inca Uyo, is hundreds of years old. Everyone further agrees that the site, in the middle of a grassy enclosure where soccer matches and bullfights were once held, has been a moneymaker for this small town on the Andean high plains, near Lake Titicaca. But what seems all but certain is that the ruin, with 86 of the carved stones inside it, is not the ancient fertility temple that many here like to say it is." The New York Times 03/21/06

Hispanic Society Moves Downtown New York's Hispanic Society is moving from its obscure upper Manhattan location to downtown. The Society is "probably the most unknown major museum in the US. Its holdings of Spanish art, decorative arts, photographs, rare books and manuscripts are the most extensive outside of Spain, and worth billions of dollars." The Art Newspaper 03/19/06

London Bombs Scared Off Museum-Goers Last summer's bombs in London caused a big drop in museum attendance. "Total UK museum visitor numbers were down by almost two million in 2005. Visits to the capital's museums in August 2005 were down 24% on the same month the previous year, according to government figures. But attendance numbers are now rising again, the Department for Media, Culture and Sport has said." BBC 03/20/06

Vettriano: Who Cares About Critics? Jack Vettriano's paintings are wildly popular with the public, and his work fetches huge prices. But he takes a workman's attitude to art: "It's wall decoration for me, I don't regard it as this big meaningful thing. My subjects are men and women getting off, that's all. Mind you, some people don't think sex is serious, but I happen to think it's terribly serious." Scotland on Sunday 03/19/06

Do American Museums Need An Exit Strategy? The Metropolitan Museum has made a deal with the Italians to return artwork. But this is just the beginning. "With the Italians playing their cards close to their vests and other nations, such as Greece, Turkey and Egypt, examining the prospects of making their own claims against American museums, worried museum officials are wondering who's next." Chicago Tribune 03/19/06

Reinventing America's Tallest Building Chicago has approved the construction of what will be America's tallest building. "The design for the $550 million tower, which was breathtaking but hardly flawless when it was introduced last July, has taken some important steps forward, both in the sky and along the ground. Now here's the trend part of the story: If this tower and Jeanne Gang's sensuous Aqua high-rise both get built, Chicago will be running a clinic in the new aesthetic possibilities offered by skyscrapers that are places to live rather than work." Chicago Tribune 03/19/06

Boston's MFA Dances With Italian Government Boston's Museum of Fine Arts is in a high-stakes dance with the Italian government over art the Italians claim has been looted. "The Italian investigators sit on one side of the table, their cards held close to the vest. Just what have they got? Can their hand prove what so many have said for years: that the MFA bought art looted from Italian archeological sites?" Boston Globe 03/19/06

Tate - If Not A Museum, Then... The Tate is not oficially registered as a museum. "The gallery is currently in the anomalous position of not being among the 1,800 museums accredited to the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA). It is the only nationally-funded museum without this status. The reason for Tate being outside the MLA scheme is simple: it refuses to accept its guidelines on deaccessioning, which are part of a much broader set of standards." The Art Newspaper 03/16/06

British Museum Breaks Ticket Sales Record The British Museum has broken a record for advance sales for a show, selling almost 11,000 tickets. "Michelangelo Drawings: Closer to the Master, overtook the previous record holder, 2005's Persia exhibition, which had 3,670 advance sales. The Michelangelo show opens on Thursday and features 90 drawings." BBC 03/19/06

Picasso's Daughter: They're Fake Maya Widmaier-Picasso, the artist's daughter, who autheticates his work, says that drawings sold on Costco are not by him. "Those two works, photographs of which were shown to her by The New York Times, were offered by the dealer with certificates in French saying that Ms. Widmaier-Picasso had authenticated them. Pointing to anomalies in the certificates — grammatical errors, wording that departed from her style, handwriting that did not match hers and the placement of words on the page — the artist's daughter said both documents were forgeries." The New York Times 03/18/06

MFA Officials To Meet With Italian Officials Boston's Museum of Fine Arts director Malcom Rogers will go to Italy to meet with officials over Italian claims that the MFA has looted objects in its collection. "What we hope comes out of this is the exchange of information, information we have not received yet. Right now, we don't even have a list of the objects the Italians believe were looted and sold to the MFA." Boston Globe 03/16/06

Inspired To Copy? When is an image borrowed from an artist and when is it inspired by him? Jan Herman wonders after spotting a recent magazine layout that contains images he remembers that were made 39 years ago... Straight Up (AJBlogs) 03/13/06

Gagosian In Chelsea Gagosian is opening a big new gallery in Chelsea. "Already the art world's leader in exhibition space, Gagosian Gallery is converting a warehouse into a gallery in New York's Chelsea district. This would be Gagosian's fifth gallery worldwide, its third in New York, and its second in Chelsea, the city's contemporary-art mecca." Bloomberg.com 03/16/06

Leak In Spain's Reina Sofia Museum Damages Paintings Madrid's Reina Sofia modern art museum opened an acclaimed new wing last September. But there was a serious flaw. "Days before the new wing, designed by France's leading avant-garde architect Jean Nouvel, was inaugurated by Queen Sofia to international acclaim, drops falling from the ceiling left marks on an important painting by the Spanish master of cubism Juan Gris, Frutero y periodico (fruitbowl and newspaper)." The Independent (UK) 03/16/06

Repatriated Klimts To Go On View In LA "Five multimillion-dollar paintings by Austrian artist Gustav Klimt — looted by the Nazis and recently returned by the Austrian government to the family of Maria Altmann in Los Angeles — will go on view at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art [this April]... The exhibition was initiated by Stephanie Barron, LACMA's senior curator of modern art, in January after an Austrian arbitration court ordered its government to turn over the paintings to Altmann, whose family fled Vienna in 1938." Los Angeles Times 03/16/06

Is Chicago Ruining Its Neighborhoods? There's no question that Chicago boasts some of America's best architecture. But a high-quality backdrop makes it all the more obvious when an architectural mishap has occurred, and Charles Leroux worries that they've been happening a lot lately. "The biggest architectural blunder is the devastation of the city's neighborhoods by bad residential structures tossed up to take advantage of the real estate boom. Some communities have been rendered almost unrecognizable by condoing, townhousing and McMansioning." Chicago Tribune 03/16/06

Costco - Home Of The Fake Picassos? Costco recently sold a Picasso drawing on its website for $39,999.99. But it looks like the authetication of the drawing was faked, and the incident has sparked questions about the company's online art purchases. The New York Times 03/16/06

Cleveland Museum To Add Condos? "The Cleveland Institute of Art may soon build the most highly visible address for the wealthy in Cleveland since the demise of Millionaires' Row in the early 20th century. The art institute's board is thinking seriously about replacing an aging, outmoded classroom building opposite the Cleveland Museum of Art with a luxury condominium tower. The building would overlook the museum and the Case Western Reserve University campus, making it one of the most desirable addresses in the region... The condominium tower project, which could also include a ground-floor art gallery or other cultural facility, could generate income to help pay for college operations." The Plain Dealer (Cleveland) 03/15/06

Spinning Controversy Into Broad Discussion A new 100-foot sculpture by Jonathan Borofsky is prompting controversy at Pittsburgh's Carnegie Mellon University, not for what it is, but for where it's going. "Where and even if it should be installed has been widely debated on campus, ever since the university announced its intention to plant it at the intersection of the Hornbostel Mall and the Cut, the campus's two rectangular green spaces, by building a concrete pad there." The controversy has led CMU to create a new public art committee which includes student input and will create and monitor the school's new public art policy. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 03/15/06

Today's Museums - All About The Numbers "With the rise and rise of the blockbuster exhibition, curatorial history seems to be marked less by new discovery, re-evaluation and changing interpretation, than by visitor numbers. History is being made, on these grounds at least, in Japan, where last autumn's Hokusai exhibition in Tokyo has broken all records for visitor attendance." The Guardian (UK) 03/15/06

Warhol, Picasso Top Art-Trading Action Picasso and Warhol were the most actively traded artists last year. "Picasso collectors raised $153.2 million last year from 1,409 works sold at auction, Artprice said. Owners of Warhols realized $86.7 million from 660 images, while 22 Monets took $61.5 million and 18 Canalettos $55.5 million, it said. Auction volumes are a guide to which works are becoming more liquid or expensive and which may be harder to buy and sell over time." Bloomberg.com 03/14/06

A Skyscraper Where It Ought Not To Be? Boston's Mayor Thomas Menino proposes a skyscraper in a place Robert Campbell calls the worst possible place for it. "The question we ought to be debating, perhaps, is whether we want to be America's Florence or its Milan -- a cultural and educational capital, or a business one. Or both? Exactly how much do we want to grow, anyway? And with what kind of growth cells? That's a debate that should be public and vociferous." Boston Globe 03/13/06

The Missing (Unauthenticated) Pollock "On Nov. 18, 2005, "Winter in Springs," a 40-by-32-inch drip painting attributed to Jackson Pollock, was stolen from the Everhart Museum of Natural History, Science and Art in Scranton, Pa. But "Winter in Springs" was never authenticated and is not in the the four-volume catalogue raisonné, or complete listing, of Pollock's work, regarded as the definitive word on authenticity. Nor was it insured. Authenticated Pollock works of similar size sell for about $10 million." The New York Times 03/14/06

Curators Remove 12-Year-Old's Gum From Frankenthaler "The saga of the $1.5-million abstract Helen Frankenthaler painting defaced two weeks ago at the Detroit Institute of Arts by a 12-year-old boy who stuck gum on it during a school outing is heading for a happy ending. After intensive research, experimentation and surgical work with high-performance tweezers, hand-rolled Q-tips and a fast-evaporating solvent -- plus some purposeful fooling around with gum -- the quarter-sized residue on Helen Frankenthaler's 'The Bay' is gone." Detroit Free Press 03/11/06

Seattle's Hammering Man Takes A Rest The giant Jonathan Borofsky sculpture has had its swinging arm stilled. "Some ball bearings fell out of the arm's mechanism Saturday and it was making 'different noises.' So a contractor turned off the motor that moves the arm in a hammering motion." Seattle Post-Intelligencer (AP) 03/13/06

Maastricht Updates Maastricht's art fair of Old Masters is modernizing. "In an effort to capitalize on the tremendous growth of the modern-art market, the show's organizers are out to carve a niche that they hope will make the European Fine Art Fair a new destination for lovers of modern and contemporary art. This year, in addition to the usual world-class collection of old-master paintings there are prime examples of works by Picasso, Magritte, Mondrian, Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg and Claes Oldenburg. They are being shown by blue-chip galleries, all newcomers to the show this year." The New York Times 03/13/06

The Palace Restoration No One Wanted Yemen's Amiriya Palace was built 400 years ago, but abandoned only 13 years later. For centuries it was ignored and abused until an archaeologist came along in the 1980s and insisted it be restored. It was the restoration no one wanted, but as the decades went on and the work continued, a real treasure emerged... The Guardian (UK) 03/11/06

When Paul Met Vincent... "In 1888, Vincent Van Gogh and Paul Gauguin spent nine weeks living together in Arles. It was a time of astonishing creativity, culminating in a catastrophic falling-out." A new book gets into the nitty-gritty of the relationship between the two masters and finds a collaboration that was far more than the sum of its parts. The Telegraph (UK) 03/11/06

Nudity? Cool! Oh, It's A Dude? Hmm. "Probably nothing so alienates us from the high art of the European past as its most prestigious subject - the male nude. Visit any old European museum, from Naples to Bloomsbury, and they have more marble statues of disrobed gods and heroes than they can reasonably display. Once these nudes were considered the apex of European culture. Today we don't really know what to do with them." The Guardian (UK) 03/11/06

Can Tijuana's Slums Lure America Back From The Sprawl? Mexico's shantytowns might seem an unlikely inspiration for a high-statuts architect, but for one suburban California designer, the low-cost Tijuana communities born of necessity represent a possible antidote to Southern Cal's plague of gated communities and endless sprawl. "It's not that he romanticizes poverty: he recognizes the filth and clutter, the lack of light and air, that were the main targets of Modernism nearly a century ago. But by approaching Tijuana's shantytowns with an open mind, he can extract a viable strategy for development that is rooted in local traditions." The New York Times 03/12/06

It's Your Museum. Play With It. "The Smithsonian's Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum is about to take its Web site where no museum has gone before. Where that is isn't absolutely clear, but it merits getting excited about. The so-called 'online national design museum' promises to open the museum and its vast collection to visitors anywhere in the world. What's more, if development can keep up with vision, the site will turn museumgoers into participants in a bold cultural experiment." Specifically, visitors to the site will be able to add and manipulate content, Wiki-style. Will it work? No one really knows. Washington Post 03/11/06

Boston's First New Museum In 100 Years? Boston's Institute of Contemporary Art is building its new $51 million home, the "first new art museum to be built in Boston in nearly 100 years. Designed by Diller Scofidio & Renfro, the 65,000-square-foot building on the waterfront will have three times the exhibition space of the institute's current building." Boston Globe 03/10/06

The Armory Show, 2006 Edition This year's New York Armory Show opens. "This year's fair looks particularly neat. Certain galleries (Sean Kelly, Zeno X) have gone for an almost arctic spareness. Many adhere to a formulaic display: biggish painting (or photograph), medium-size sculpture, little paintings (or drawings) in a nook. Expensive, less expensive, beginner's luck. The mix can work great." The New York Times 03/10/06

"Franco" Paintings Withdrawn From Auction Three paintings that were said to be painted by the Spanish dictator Francisco Franco have been "withdrawn from an auction after a lawyer for his family said they could not have been his work." The Guardian (UK) 03/10/06

Found - A Lost Michelangelo? Is a fresco on the wall of an Italian church a Michelangelo? "The inhabitants of the Chianti village have long claimed that the artwork was painted by Michelangelo in his youth. The claim was supported in the 1940 by the scholar Roberto Weiss, who attributed the Pietà to the Renaissance master. However, the first visible evidence for the legend was found only recently." Discovery 03/09/06

Saatchi Art Firm In Court The company set up to run Charles Saatchi's art gallery in London has landed in court, unable to pay its bills. Meanwhile, Saatchi has already announced plans to set up a new gallery... The Guardian (UK) 03/09/06

Getty To Help Conserve Egypt's Valley Of The Queens Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities and the Getty Conservation Institute have entered into a six-year partnership for the conservation and management of the Valley of the Queens, one of the world's most important archeological sites. Los Angeles Times 03/08/06

Savannah Gets A New Museum "The $24.5 million Jepson Center for the Arts, which opens Friday, is a shockingly modern addition to both the historic downtown of Georgia's oldest city as well as the annex's 138-year-old sister museum." Seattle Post-Intelligencer (AP) 03/08/06

Denver Museum Gets $30 Million In Art, Plus A Summer House The Denver Art Museum is preparing to accept one of its largest bequests ever - "more than $30 million in contemporary artworks by such marquee names as Andy Warhol, Damien Hirst, Jeff Koons and Cindy Sherman; Fifteen million dollars in cash; [and] A house and gallery in Vail." The gift comes from a Vail couple who "have spent more than 14 years acquiring work from around the world, anticipating collecting trends and tapping new sources, including the booming Chinese market. They are included on ARTnews magazine's prestigious annual list of the world's top 200 art collectors." Denver Post 03/08/06

Website Ranks Artists And Their Market Value A new website has developed a mathematical formula to determine where in the food chain any artist lives. "Today, nearly 60,000 internationally recognised artists are listed. The number of points awarded reflects the importance of the artist in the eyes of the curators who select the artists for exhibitions. From these charts it is possible to get an idea of an artist's standing on the international exhibition circuit. The key points from the prediction point of view are the sudden rises in the flow charts which suggest the revaluation of an artist's career or the blossoming of a new one." The Telegraph (UK) 03/07/06

Auction Houses Say Buyers Pay New UK Levy Sotheby's and Christie's say auction buyers will have to pay a new UK levy on the resale of art. "The artists' resale royalties are paid on a sliding scale, based on the hammer price, and are capped at 12,500 euros ($14,904) for any individual item sold. Works costing less than 1,000 euros are excluded." Bloomberg.com 03/07/06

The Whitney - A Work In Progress Just as the Whitney Biennial is constantly being reinvented, so is the Whitney itself. "We’re always going to be criticized for being trendy, for getting things before they’re fully tested. You can’t afford not to do that, if you’re the Whitney. We have to take risks, and make mistakes, and be light on our feet. Sometimes the things that happen by chance are the best things. The art world is changing, artists are changing, so to have a plan that’s too fixed would defeat what we’re trying to do." The New York Times 03/07/06

Art Thieves Hit Rio Again For the second time in ten days, art thieves have scored a major heist in Rio. "Two armed men burst into the Rio City Museum and took gold and silver relics from Brazil's empire era said to be of 'incalculable historic value'. The 11 stolen items include an ivory sabre and a pearl and silver foil." BBC 03/07/06

Rewriting Art History There's a new "revised version of 'Janson's History of Art,' a doorstopper first published in 1962 that has been a classroom hit ever since Horst Woldemar Janson wrote it while working at New York University. For a generation of baby boomers, it defined what was what and who was who in art. But in recent years it has lost its perch as the best-selling art survey and has been criticized for becoming a scholarly chestnut. So its publisher recruited six scholars from around the country and told them to rewrite as much as they wanted, to cast a critical eye on every reproduction, chapter heading and sacred cow." The New York Times 03/07/06

Black And White - End Of An Era When Kodak announced last June that it would no longer manufacture black-and-white printing papers, the decision did more than terminate 117 years of production. By severing a vital supply line long taken for granted, the company reminded photographers of their humbling dependence on equipment and materials—and how quickly both they and the equipment and materials can go out of date. ARTnews 03/06

Guild Formed To Combat Russian Art Forgery To combat the rising incidence of art forgery, Russian scholars are forming a new guild to act as an authority. "The Guild's main goal is to establish rules and standards for authenticating art works. It plans to license art experts, act as a lobby for the art market in Russia and provide information and legal assistance for collectors." Bloomberg.com 03/06/06

Serial In Seattle "In the 1950s, when all eyes were on New York and nobody cared about the regions, that's when, paradoxically, the most distinctive regional art emerged: Bay Area Figurative, the Northwest School, L.A. Cool, and New Image in Chicago. Although they were tuned in to what was going on in the national and international context, their audiences weren't, necessarily. The audiences were focused on their home team. That support didn't stifle innovation, it seems to have helped make it possible. In today's pluralistic context, there is no home team and no label to describe the rich diversity in any one place." So how about Seattle Serial? visual codec 03/06

Budick: Whitney Biennial Premise A Cliche We're told that artists in this year's Whitney Biennial are "challenging concepts," "transgressing boundaries," "blurring lines" and "investigating relationships." But Ariella Budick has some news for the curators: "There are no boundaries left to transgress. Art can't be liminal in the absence of the thresholds. How can you challenge conventions that have already been burned beyond recognition? There's something almost quaint about the use of these cliches. Where have the curators been for the past 20 years?" Newsday 03/05/06

Gummed-Up Painting Taken To The Lab That Helen Frankenthaler painting damaged last week when a 12-year-old boy affixed a wad of gum to it in the Detroit Institute of Arts has been taken to the conservation lab. "Museum officials said they are optimistic that the picture will make a full recovery. But in contrast to comments earlier this week in which relieved officials said decisively that the 1963 painting, 'The Bay,' would be fine, the museum issued a more tempered statement. Detroit Free Press 03/03/06

• Gum Boy Gets Slammed The 12-year-old boy who stuck gum on a valuable painting during a school visit to the Detroit Institute of Arts probably got more than he bargained for. "He's slammed with a suspension from school, a front-page newspaper account, derision from morning-ride DJs and mentions in media across the world. At 12 years old, he becomes Gum Boy. Forevermore, everyone expects the worst from him. His parents keep their shades drawn." Detroit Free Press 03/05/06

A Little Darkness Falls On The "Painter Of Light" Thomas Kinkade has made millions as a self-styled "Painter of Light." But some of his gallery owners are suing him, and they paint a pretty dark picture. "In litigation and interviews with the Los Angeles Times, some former gallery owners depict Kinkade, 48, as a ruthless businessman who drove them to financial ruin at the same time he was fattening his business associates' bank accounts and feathering his nest with tens of millions of dollars." Los Angeles Times 03/05/06

Collectivity And The Dynamics Of Art Artist collectives change the dynamics of making art. "One way or another, joint production among parties of equal standing — we're not talking about master artist and studio assistants here — scrambles existing aesthetic formulas. It may undermine the cult of the artist as media star, dislodge the supremacy of the precious object and unsettle the economic structures that make the art world a mirror image of the inequities of American culture at large. In short, it confuses how we think about art and assign value to it. This can only be good." The New York Times 03/05/06

British Museum Lends To China The British Museum is loaning 272 of its most precious artefacts to the Capital Museum of Beijing in one of the highest level cultural exchanges between the two countries. "Ancient Egyptian tablets, Greek busts and the world's oldest tool will be among the items on display in the first major overseas exhibition staged at the new museum - a gleaming structure of glass, steel and stone that opened in December." The Guardian (UK) 03/03/06

Stolen Matisse Offered For Sale Online One of the paintings stolen in Brazil has shown up for sale on the internet. "Henri Matisse's Luxembourg Gardens, which was taken from the Chacara do Ceu museum in Rio de Janeiro, was advertised on a Russian website. Brazilian police say they believe the stolen pictures are still in Rio." BBC 03/03/06

Corcoran Cuts Staff, Reimagines New Future Washington's Corcoran Gallery has cut staff, including its chief curator. The move comes one month before Paul Greenhalgh takes over as director. "Greenhalgh announced the cuts at a meeting Thursday for staff and faculty of the gallery and its College of Art and Design. He characterized the moves as part of an effort to help redirect the 137-year-old institution." Washington Post 03/04/06

This Year's Whitney - Best In Show Jerry Saltz calls this latest edition of the Whitney Biennial "the liveliest, brainiest, most self-conscious Whitney Biennial I have ever seen. In some ways it isn’t a biennial at all. Curators Chrissie Iles and Philippe Vergne have cleverly re-branded the biennial, presenting a thesis not a snap-shot, a proposition about art in a time when modernism is history and postmodernist rhetoric feels played out." Artnet.com 03/03/06

The Whitney's Collaborative Biennial This year's Whitney Biennial opens. Michael Kimmelman: "Conservatives will no doubt dismiss the whole exhibition as another political show like the 1993 biennial. But this show's not like that one, which went out of its way to thumb its nose at many people." The New York Times 03/03/06

How Art Appreciates What is it that increases the value of art? Fame, exposure, The right collectors? The Times (UK) 03/02/06

Denver Site Chosen For Clyfford Still Museum A new museum built to show 90 percent of the output of painter Clyfford Still will be built next to the Denver Art Museum. "This particular four-block area, which is called the Civic Center Cultural Complex, is really Denver's cultural mecca, so the fact that the Clyfford Still Museum can join those existing august institutions establishes us also as a leading cultural amenity," Denver Post 03/02/06

Peru To Sue Yale Peru says it will sue Yale University for the return of artifacts from Machu Picchu. "Yale, which has displayed the antiquities at its Peabody Museum in New Haven, Connecticut, offered to set up parallel collections at Yale and at a new museum to be built in Peru, which the government rejected." Bloomberg.com 03/02/06

Italy And China Join Forces On Artifacts Italy and China are teaming up to fight the illicit artifacts trade. "The agreement sets out a programme of co-operation that will see a task force of Chinese agents travel to Italy to receive specialist training from the unit of Carabinieri, Italy’s military police, devoted to the preservation of cultural heritage." The Art Newspaper 03/02/06

A Vancouver Olympics (By Design?) Vancouver hosts the next winter Olympics. So what will its Olympic architecture be? "Turin served the world divine chocolate and a legacy of architecture by geniuses: a university complex by Norman Foster, the redeveloped Lingotto factory complex by Renzo Piano, the Palasport stadium by Arata Isozaki. For its part, Vancouver will host some fine moments in city building, such as the Olympic Village, but the city is inviting the world to "come play with us" in buildings beaten up by the rising cost demands of an overheated construction industry. Expect a lot of metal cladding and concrete block." The Globe & Mail (Canada) 03/02/06

Cincinnati Museum Votes Expansion The Cincinnati Art Museum is embarking on a huge expansion. "It will cost at least $125 million and add 110,000 square feet, underground parking, new and renovated galleries and an outdoor sculpture park. And it will eclipse the city's most recent art museum projects: construction of the $35 million Contemporary Arts Center in 2002-03 and the $22.8 million renovation and expansion of the Taft Museum of Art in 2003-04." Cincinnati Enquirer 03/01/06

Another Whitney Biennial? Hmnnn... "The Biennial embodies the Whitney’s eternal identity crisis. The museum cannot abandon its American focus, but today there’s every reason to emphasize global rather than national perspectives. (Besides, art fairs churn out surveys constantly.) What’s the Whitney to do with the Biennial? Its predicament is serious but also funny." New York Magazine 02/27/06

2005's Most-Visited Exhibitions Three of the top ten most-visited exhibitions worldwide last year were in Japan. The Art Newspaper publishes its annual list... The Art Newspaper 03/01/06

Deceased MoMA Curator's Inside Memoir William S. Rubin, the longtime curator of the Museum of Modern Art died at the age of 78 in January. Before he died he wrote a memoir. "The 198-page typescript chronicles Rubin’s professional life, with particular focus on the museum’s complex relationships with dealers, trustees, collectors and artists. Few if any published accounts lay out these usually covert matters in such frank detail." The Art Newspaper 03/01/06