Visual Arts Massachusetts Gallery Sues NY Dealer Over War Loot The Springfield, (Massachusetts) Library and Museum Association has filed a lawsuit against New York art dealer Knoedler for $3 million, after it had to return a painting to Italy because it was discovered to be war loot. "In June 2001, the Springfield Museum returned the oil painting 'Spring sowing' by Jacopo da Ponte, known as Il Bassano, to Italy, after having been shown evidence that the work had disappeared during World War II from the Italian Embassy in Warsaw while on loan from the Uffizi Gallery. Knoedler had sold the painting to the museum in 1955 for $5,000." The Art Newspaper 10/10/03 Posted: 10/10/2003 8:25 am Assessing Baghdad Museum Damage "A report on emergency conservation needs at Baghdad’s National Museum has concluded that the damage caused by the war was 'substantial', primarily to ivory, stone and ceramic objects." The Art Newspaper 10/10/03 Posted: 10/10/2003 8:20 am Anderson Responds When the Village Voice's Jerry Salz published a scathing critique earlier this week of Maxwell Anderson's tenure as director of the Whitney Museum, Anderson felt the need to set the record straight: "As the Whitney's former director, freed for a time from the well-meaning restraints of publicists, it's a pleasure to respond on behalf of all museum directors who are congenitally obliged to hold their tongues... Too few critics are informed enough about the realities of running a museum to write about the museum - as opposed to its manifestation through exhibitions accounting for only a portion of its energies and budget." AJ Letters 10/10/03 Posted: 10/10/2003 6:07 am Toe Nail Queen (At Least They're Talking About Art?) Winnipeg artist Aliza Amihude makes jewelry. But her materials are a bit unusual - mouse droppings, toenail clippings, dead insects and pubic hair. And her work has stirred a wave of protest after she got a $5,000 grant from the provincial arts agency. "It is a pure waste of taxpayers' money, yet it is out there on public display, no doubt available for children to see," said the provincial opposition party's culture critic in a debate on the art in the legislature. Yahoo! (Reuters) 10/09/03 Posted: 10/10/2003 1:57 am The State Museum Jostling The Hermitage The State Russian Museum in St. Petersburg has been on an expansion tear. "Since 1988, when Vladimir Gusev became its director, the museum has expanded to take in four palaces around the city: the Mikhailovsky Palace, the Engineers' Castle, the Stroganov Palace and the Marble Palace. 'The Hermitage is begining to feel uneasy about our expansion'." St. Petersburg Times (Russia) 10/10/03 Posted: 10/10/2003 1:38 am Music Recording Industry Suing Flea Markets The recording industry has widened its legal offensive. Now it's suing owners of flea markets. "The lawsuit filed by the Recording Industry Association of America charges that the market has made only token efforts to deter the sale of counterfeit and pirated recordings, and says that, like many flea markets, Columbus profits by virtue of its underground reputation as a marketplace for cheap discs. 'There are 3,000 flea markets in the country, and at many of them, vendors are offering home-burned CD's or other illegal recordings'." The New York Times 10/10/03 Posted: 10/10/2003 9:32 am English National Opera's Frayed Edges "Two years of boardroom rows, budget deficits, strike threats, sackings and redundancies, plummeting box-office sales and the critics' thumbs-down have taken a chastening toll on an institution that once breezily proclaimed itself as opera's 'Powerhouse'. Now ENO is beginning to reinvent itself in less aggressive guise, with a new managerial team led by artistic director and chief executive Sean Doran." The Telegraph (UK) 10/10/03 Posted: 10/10/2003 3:02 am English National Opera Gets Some Help The English National Opera has been in a crisis for so long, it's getting harder and harder to remember when the company was able to just concentrate on producing good work. Now some good news. "Yesterday the artistic director, Sean Doran, announced the biggest sponsorship deal in its history, £3m over three years from Sky and the digital channel Artsworld. And its Ring Cycle next year has got the largest sponsorship for a single production - £300,000 from the MFI group, best known for bargain kitchens." The Guardian (UK) 10/10/03 Posted: 10/10/2003 2:51 am But When That Carrot Hits A Wrong Note! The First Viennese Vegetable Orchestra has left the crisper for a European tour (they have a CD, natch). "The orchestra's instruments consist entirely of fresh vegetables, minimally abetted by some kitchen gadgets and a power drill. Before a show, the nine orchestra members go produce shopping and spend about four hours honing their particular devices. Carrots play a major role: some are hollowed out and made into flutes capable of mean trills; others are lined up like a xylophone; a few get grated. Gourds are slapped, peas and celery snapped, leeks used as drumsticks on pumpkins. Perhaps the prettiest instrument, the gurkophon is made from a cucumber with a carrot mouthpiece and a red pepper bell." Financial Times 10/10/03 Posted: 10/10/2003 2:41 am Arts Issues Seattle's "Genius" Awards The MacArthur awards have been announced for this year. But Seattle alternative weekly The Stranger decided to give out its own "genius" awards. While winners get a much smaller prize ($5,000 rather than the MacArthur's $500,000), there's a lot of honor that goes along with them. Organizers say they're "steering a middle course between the MacArthur Awards and Publishers Clearinghouse. All the hugging and kissing between critics and award winners brought a disclaimer of sorts from editor Dan Savage. "None of our critics has slept with any of the award winners. Not yet. Maybe it's time they paid up." Seattle Post-Intelligencer 10/10/03 Posted: 10/10/2003 9:51 am Michigan: Hip To Be Cool Michigan's governor says she wants to make her state so cool that people will be drawn to it. "The governor said she mailed letters to 200 Michigan mayors encouraging them to organize 'cool commissions' to make their cities attractive enough to keep young adults in the state. 'More than 33,000 young adults ages 25-34 left Metro Detroit between 2000 and 2002, according to a recent U.S. Census Bureau report. It was the biggest loss of that age group in the country, an exodus that could put the area's long-term economic outlook at risk'." Detroit News 10/09/03 Posted: 10/10/2003 9:28 am Yerba Buena At Ten San Francisco's Yerba Buena Center is a different kind of arts center. "Inspired by the German Kunst- hallen, exhibition spaces that maintain no permanent collections, the center instead has focused on visual and performing arts that showcase emerging talent from across the town's diverse cultural populations. Curators make a special effort to showcase Asian, Hispanic, and African-American artists." Now Yerba Buena is ten years old. Christian Science Monitor 10/10/03 Posted: 10/10/2003 1:50 am People Godfather Of Grunge After he was dead (killing himself in 1991 at the age of 40), Seattle poet Jesse Bernstein was considered by many to be the "Godfather of Grunge" "He not only liked the naked elegance of the music, he helped shape it, opening for the bands (Nirvana, Big Black, Soundgarden, U-Men, the Crows) who went on to the big time, and working the crowd into a ecstatic heat. He liked to cause a stir. When in the mood, he added to his legend. When not, he complained about it." Seattle Post-Intelligencer 10/10/03 Posted: 10/10/2003 9:43 am Court Told Of Plot To Swindle Robert Hughes A private investigator in Australia has told a court about a plan he and a partner had to swindle art critic Robert Hughes out of $30,000. The pair tried to sell Hughes favorable testimony during the critic's dangerous driving trial three years ago. The pair were arrested in 2000 after a police sting. The Herald-Sun (Australia) 10/10/03 Posted: 10/10/2003 8:05 am He Who Judges The Books "The annual post-prandial lecturette on Booker night has been a thing of controversy in the hands of Lisa Jardine (too populist), Gerald Kaufman (too sinister), Kenneth Baker (too fulsome) or Carmen Callil (too critical of the home product). John Carey, however, is someone you can trust. Among the politicians, publishers, historians and media tarts who judge the Booker, he is a bona fide literary-critical star. He retired four years ago as the Merton Professor of English Literature at Oxford, (the top Eng Lit job in the land) and his weekly reviews are by common consent the ne plus ultra of waspish evaluation." The Independent (UK) 10/10/03 Posted: 10/10/2003 2:57 am Theatre Pre-Selling Broadway "Sure, all the Broadway musicals are bragging about their advances - $10 million for "The Boy From Oz," $8.5 million for "Wicked," 20 cents for "Taboo" and "Wonderful Town" combined - but the little straight plays are sitting on a nice pile of cash, too." New York Post 10/10/03 Posted: 10/10/2003 3:14 am Base-ic Shakespeare Congress has approved $1 million to bring Shakespeare to the troops. "The $368 billion defense bill recently approved by Congress includes $1 million to bring performances of Shakespeare to troops at stateside military bases. The Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis will be one of seven theater companies involved in the unprecedented effort." The Star-Tribune (Mpls) 10/10/03 Posted: 10/10/2003 3:10 am Publishing The Decline Of Frankfurt? The Frankfurt Book Fair is the publishing world's major deal-making event. But the fair is expensive, and increasingly attendees grumble. "Many US publishers have scaled back their presence this year, and the decision of St Martin's Press (Holtzbrinck) to pull out has been watched with interest. Some key US agents have said that the London Book Fair is now a more crucial event on the trading calendar." Bookseller 10/08/03 Posted: 10/10/2003 9:31 am Media High Canadian Dollar Threatens Movie Biz Is Governor Schwarzenegger going to try to stop Hollywood films from fleeing to Canada to shoot? Maybe. Maybe not. But "the biggest issue impacting runaway production is the high Canadian dollar. Five years ago, I could count on an increase in my budget of 30-per-cent shooting in Canada. Now, because of the dollar, you may get 10 per cent to 15 per cent, if you're lucky. The gap is narrowing and the payoff for us coming up there is getting increasingly slim." The Globe & Mail (Canada) 10/10/03 Posted: 10/10/2003 2:45 am Berlin's Digital Dare While American TV has made little progress in converting to digital, the city of Berlin accomplished the digital transition in one fell swoop. "The lessons for American policymakers: The paralysis that grips the digital TV transition in the United States can be overcome, and taking away analog TV is not political suicide." Slate 10/08/03 Posted: 10/09/2003 9:06 pm Dance Cuban Ballet Cancels Sylphides Over Copyright "The Ballet Nacional de Cuba has announced the cancellation of "Les Sylphides," a 1907 ballet by Michel Fokine that was to be performed at City Center next week and on its national tour, in response to an accusation of copyright infringement by the Fokine Estate in London. American Ballet Theater owns the exclusive rights to the ballet in New York through September 2005." The New York Times 10/10/03