Hedge-fund billionaire Steven A. Cohen recently purchased two major works of art from Las Vegas casino owner Stephen Wynn, according to reports. “The paintings are van Gogh’s ‘Peasant Woman Against a Background of Wheat’ (1890) and Gauguin’s ‘Bathers’ (1902), and they once hung in the Bellagio Gallery of Fine Art in Las Vegas, which was founded by Mr. Wynn, and were included in a 1999 catalog of the gallery’s holdings.” The estimated purchase price for the two works was well over $100 million.
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The Specialists
A new generation of young pianists is coming of age in New York. But rather than pursuing traditional avenues of classical music achievement and finding fame on the orchestral stage, many are opting for the far more specialized world of contemporary music. The result has been a renewed energy in the city’s new music circles, and a fiercely loyal following for the performers who choose the road less traveled.
The New Nyman
“No one divides the musical world quite like Michael Nyman. There are critics who shudder at the mere mention of his name. The public loves him; his score for Jane Campion’s film The Piano has become a fixture on [UK radio network] Classic FM… He has a whole team of agents and managers, he has his own recording company, and he lives in the heart of the Islington elite, a stone’s throw from Simon Rattle.” Now, Nyman is hitting the road, performing his own piano works for adoring throngs across Europe. “What’s surprising for anyone who remembers the blistering, relentlessly repetitive early Nyman is how soft and mellifluous the recent music has become… So can it be true that Nyman is really mellowing? Have all the old distancing devices been banished?”
Pinter’s Latest Miniature
Harold Pinter is 75, and not in good health, his esophagus ravaged by cancer and his famous voice “notably weakened.” But somehow, the playwright has willed himself to create a short but profound new radio play, which will receive its premiere next week on BBC Radio. “For Voices, Pinter has reworked five of his later plays – One for the Road, Mountain Language, The New World Order, Party Time and Ashes to Ashes – into a fragmented narrative on cruelty, torture and oppression, which is interrupted, accompanied and complemented by [composer James] Clarke’s mercurial score, performed by the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the soprano Eileen Aargaard and an Azeri singer, Fatma Mehralieva, among others.”
Fagin The Jew: Anti-Semitism’s Grip On Classic Lit
The role of the Jew in Western literature has far too often been as a malevolent, money-grubbing villain who exists mainly to be bested by the blond-haired, blue-eyed hero. And if that Aryan-Nordic hero can be a child, so much the better, as Charles Dickens knew well when he conjured up the primary antagonist for Oliver Twist. “There is almost no other character to compete with Fagin for the title of the most grotesque and villainous Jew in all of English literature. Of all the 989 characters who sprang from the pen of Charles Dickens, the evil old gang-master is one of his most vivid caricatures.” Even though modern morality has mandated that film and stage versions of the Dickens tale tone down the anti-Semitism, the disturbing stereotype is still pervasive.
Tehran Takes A Chance With Western Art
“The finest collection of 20th-century Western art outside Europe and America has been gathering dust in storage. Why? Because it’s owned by the Islamic Republic of Iran,” where artistic freedom is unheard of and heavy censorship is a way of life. In fact, the collection was very nearly sold off after Iran became an Islamic theocracy in 1979 and Western culture became the enemy of the state. “The art was saved, probably for commercial reasons, but it remained mostly unseen, while the museum put on edifying shows of religious and revolutionary art.” But now, the complete collection is on display at Tehran’s national museum for the first time since the revolution that brought the mullahs to power.
Landlord: Saatchi Went Berserk Over A Toilet
Representatives of two companies attempting to evict collector Charles Saatchi’s gallery from its South Bank premises have testified in court that the enigmatic collector flew into a rage over the use of a disabled toilet in one of the complex’s common areas. The companies “allege the gallery consistently encroached on communal areas not within its leased area,” and further accuse Saatchi himself of using “intimidatory tactics.”
Come Pillage Our Castle!
“Sotheby’s is selling more than 20,000 items from the royal House of Hanover at the Marienburg Castle near Hanover, in northern Germany. Divided into about 4,700 lots, many of royal provenance, the sale includes glass and porcelain, silver, arms and armor, old master paintings, uniforms and textiles belonging to the kings and princes of England and Hanover from the 15th through the 19th centuries.”
Brit Council Opens Virtual Gallery
“One of the world’s largest collections of contemporary British art goes on show today, showcasing work from the likes of Henry Moore, David Hockney and Tracey Emin – and the venue is just a click of the mouse away. The British Council’s new online database… provides details of the 8,000 works in its permanent collection, 80% of which is on tour at any one time.”
Good News In Buffalo, But Stormier Seas Ahead
The Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra has announced a balanced budget for the fiscal year just completed, and ticket sales for the fall season are well ahead of last year’s pace. But no one at the BPO is spending much time on self-congratulation: projections for the year ahead predict a $1.4 million deficit, and a large amount of government funding traditionally allocated to the orchestra is in jeopardy as a result of a statewide budget crunch.