New Zealand’s Maori tribes are trying to stop an upcoming government auction of the radio spectrum. “The Maori argued that ownership of the spectrum was their right as granted under the Treaty of Waitangi, New Zealand’s founding document. The Treaty, signed in 1840 by Maori and the British government, promises to protect taonga, the Maori term for resources considered valuable by New Zealand’s indigenous people. At the time of the Treaty signing, such resources included land, forests and fisheries. Maori believe the concept of taonga also extends to radio spectrum.” – Wired
Author: Douglas McLennan
STOLEN PICASSO FOUND
A painting recovered in Izmir, Turkey, last week is believed to be a 1908 Picasso (“La Fermiere”) stolen from the Kuwaiti royal palace by an Iraqi army captain during the Gulf War. – Times of India (AP)
MAXING OUT THE GIFTING EXPERIENCE
Museums have discovered that online sales of museum merchandise do better than giftshop sales in the museum. It’s a large an untapped market, say online retailers. “People are giving suboptimal gifts. We want them to give gifts based on the finest works of art in the world.” – New York Times
NEW HOME FOR OLD MASTERS
London’s Wallace Collection, a private museum of 18th-century furniture, ceramics, and Old Master paintings, has undergone a £10.6 million restoration and a modern facelift in the hopes of becoming the UK’s hub for the study of the 18th-century decorative arts. The new galleries open to the public next week. – The Telegraph (UK)
JUBILEE CELEBRATION
“It cost seven times more than the dome, was finished a year and a half late, and its teething problems have driven thousands of commuters round the twist. But all was forgiven yesterday when the sleek Jubilee Line extension won the title of millennium building of the year.” – The Guardian
BOTCHED BRIDGE
Less than a month after its opening, London’s £18.2 million Millennium Bridge has closed to the public for engineering tests, due to reports by the crowds that the aluminum and steel bridge bounced and swayed dramatically. – The Guardian
55 YEARS IN THE MAKING
The Art Institute of Chicago has announced the settlement of a claim to one of its sculptures by heirs of a prominent Jewish art collector in France whose holdings were auctioned by the French government during World War II. – Chicago Tribune
INSIDE THE FBI INVESTIGATION —
— of the 1990 $200 million art heist from Boston’s Gardner Museum. Newly-released documents identify FBI targets and strategies for solving the dramatic crime. – Boston Globe
PROVING THE FIX
Prosecutors are racing to ready their case of collusion against Christie’s and Sotheby’s. “If the Justice Department is successful in establishing that the price-fixing dates back nine years, civil awards could cripple both companies. One lawyer suing the auction houses said that the damages could run well into the hundreds of millions of dollars, which, when tripled under provisions in such cases, could mean combined losses to Sotheby’s and Christie’s of close to $1.5 billion.” – New York Times
JUST WHERE DID I PUT THAT PAINTING?
The Austrian government accuses Vienna’s Österreichische Galerie Belvedere of financial mismanagement and of having “mislaid” 3,200 of its 10,000 works. The Belvedere museum collects Austrian art from the Middle Ages to the present. – The Art Newspaper