“Martin Fabiani, a Paris dealer who was arrested and fined by the Allies after the Second World War for dealing in ‘enemy property’ and art plundered by the Nazis, supplied Canada’s National Gallery with several notable paintings, among them works by Pierre Auguste Renoir, Paul Cézanne and Edgar Degas. Dealers, such as Mr. Fabiani, took advantage of cut-rate prices on art looted from Jews in Nazi-occupied countries. During the chaos that ensued when France was occupied by the Nazis, dealers like Mr. Fabiani were able to sidestep legal formalities in order to make quick sales.” – National Post (Canada)
Author: Douglas McLennan
WHAT HAPPENED TO THE CULTURE?
Prague was named this year’s European City of Culture. But with so many state collections in the city closed or in flux, one has to ask how seriously the city is taking the designation. – The Art Newspaper
INTERDICTING ART
The US Customs Service has started a new unit of six agents to specialize in art seizures. “Art theft seizures demand an ability to recognize valuable art, verify the authenticity of a piece and properly preserve it, and the job requires a masterful grasp of international regulations and the ability to work with people of astounding wealth and expertise.” – Salon
MONUMENTITIS
- South Korea wanted to do something big to mark the turn of the millennium. But those plans have been drastically scaled back. “Gone are plans for 12 grand gate structures that were to be built around the nation over the next 120 years, and one of the few remaining projects is hanging by a thread.” – Korea Herald
MAJOR NEW PICASSO MUSEUM
The sale of the Berggruen Collection to the city of Berlin means “that Berlin will have a Picasso museum that is rivaled only by the Musée Picasso in Paris. Of the 165 works, 85 are Picassos, spanning every period of the artist’s life. The rest include outstanding examples by 20th-century masters like Braque, Giacometti, Matisse and Klee. The new museum will fill a serious gap in Germany, since most early modern art was driven out of the country by Hitler as ‘degenerate’.” – New York Times
‘OW YA DOIN?
An analysis of Queen Elizabeth’s accent and speech patterns between the 1950s and now indicates a change. “While Her Majesty is not about to refer to ‘My ‘usband and I’, she now speaks in a way ‘more typically associated with speakers who are younger and lower in the social hierarchy’, the Australian analysts write in Nature.” – The Times (UK)
ARCHER HEADS FOR AN EARLY SHOWER
Jeffrey Archer’s play in London has been a big bomb – so much so that it’s closing early. But Lord Archer, whose legal woes didn’t slow down his work on the production has been the subject of some creatively vicious reviews: “This leaden and incompetent play leaves you little option but to find its hero innocent and to find everything else (dialogue, legal acumen, structure, and so on) as culpable as all hell … The author’s self-belief is breathtaking and farcical.” – The Independent (UK)
NOTORIETY DIDN’T SAVE THE DAY: “The cliché-ridden play’s most dramatic moment came off-stage on its very first night in the regions, when it opened in Windsor. By a remarkable coincidence, the first performance was also the day that Archer was charged with committing perjury.” – The Independent (UK)
WHO’S MAKING MONEY ON BROADWAY THIS YEAR?
Strangely enough, the straight plays (though they have to have celebs in them). Last year it was thought the straights were doomed. Now several are making money, while the expensive musicals are having a hard time making the rent. – New York Post
WHAT WILL MUSICAL THEATRE LOOK LIKE?
“We’ve come to the end of the road for one style of musical, the giant pseudo-Romantic pop-rock sludge pile. I never liked these things; now nobody likes them. As far as I’m concerned, Cats (closed) and Miss Saigon (expiring next month) have been flops all along—the public simply didn’t take my reviews to heart until now.” But what comes next? – Village Voice
MOSCOW SYMPHONY ON $5 A DAY
American cellist works on a tour with the Moscow Symphony. “On what orchestra members say was their most grueling tour in years, he put up with conditions that would have prompted unionized American musicians to go on strike. For Russian musicians it was all in a day’s work.” – New York Times