American architect Rick Mather has been entrusted to redesign and redevelop London’s South Bank. Mather has been working in London for 30 years, putting his modernist touch on a series of redevelopment projects, including the Dulwich Picture Gallery, National Maritime Museum, and Oxford’s Ashmolean Museum. His South Bank scheme blends conservation and renewal. – The Telegraph (UK)
Month: March 2000
DON’T FENCE ME IN
A fence being built around the Pantheon in Rome in hopes of protecting it from vandals is earning the ire of Romans. “Should art and architectural treasures be left to be enjoyed as they are, despite the risks of vandals, thieves and pollution? Or should they be fenced off, sealed behind bulletproof glass or hauled off to museums with modern-day copies as stand-ins?” – Washington Post
FOR MATURE AUDIENCES
A collection of ancient Roman erotica, unearthed from Pompeii and Herculaneum, will open to the public for the first time next month after being stashed in a Naples museum for 200 years. The so-called “secret cabinet” of artifacts ranges from “mythological scenes of love and sex between nymphs, gods, and satyrs that decorated Roman homes to erotic images which were hung in brothels.” – Times of India (Reuters)
THE POLITICS OF STAMPS
Commemorative stamps are big big business, and the US Post Office has been releasing a flood of them – 5 billion to 6 billion a year: singles, sheets, rolls, blocks, booklets, commemorating everything from… well… – Washington Post
COLLATERAL DAMAGE
Since only a small percentage of artists are able to support themselves working full-time on their art, the vast majority rely on income from other salaried work. Now the Australian government is drafting legislation to limit artists’ tax deductions that could make it that much harder to earn a living wage. The government’s real target has been tax evasion by rich professionals, but artists writing off work expenses and losses will be the “collateral victims.” – Sydney Morning Herald
UNLIKELY HERO
Australian Federal Arts Minister Richard Alston, who has been criticized in the past for his preoccupation with the communications industries, is set to “become an unlikely hero when he announces a massive increase in arts funding next week.” After a nationwide performing arts report found many Australian arts companies to be burdened by debt, Alston is “proposing that funding to Australia’s 31 major performing arts companies be increased by about $67 million over four years.” – The Age (Melbourne)
PILING ON
As many as 200 Australian art and antique dealers may file lawsuits against Sotheby’s and Christie’s, charging the auction houses with collusion on fixing commissions during the 1990s. – Sydney Morning Herald
BLOCK THAT SALE
A 10th-century Chinese sculptured wall panel stolen from the Five Dynasties (A.D. 906-960) tomb of Wang Chuzhi in Hebei Province in 1994 has been ordered seized in New York. The artwork was due to be auctioned at Christie’s but the US Customs office wants to return it to China. – Archaeology Magazine
JUST DIFFERENT
New technologies are changing the music business. Musicians can play along, or they can fight it. But just because the economics are changing doesn’t mean it’s a catastrophe. “Rather than insist that the way the music world does business today is the only way imaginable, it behooves artists to take a longer and more imaginative view. It’s not as if the status quo has served them so well.” – Salon
OOOH BABY BABY BABY
New study reports that sex on prime time American television has tripled in the past ten years. Oh yes, violence and bad language are up too. – MSNBC (AP) 03/30/00