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Vilar Gets Reduced Bail, With Help From His Friends

Unable to make the $10 million bail set by a Manhattan judge, disgraced philanthropist Alberto Vilar and his attorneys begged the court to consider accepting a lesser sum raised by the defendant’s friends and family. After some wrangling, Vilar was released on the promise of a $4 million bond. Vilar will also be required to turn over his extensive art collection to the court, and some friends are putting their own multi-million-dollar homes up as collateral. The judge in the case agreed to reduce bail once it became clear that prosecutors would need a significant amount of time to sort through all the documents in the case.

Nothin’ Says Fringe Like Feet And Tongues

The Minnesota Fringe Festival is in its twelfth year of existence, and boasts of being the largest such fest in America. Naturally, organizers felt it was time for a new logo that reflects such a reputation. And naturally, the logo sports a giant pair of lips. And a giant tongue. And a tiny foot. And, um… okay, does anyone know what the hell this thing is supposed to be?

Pollock Or Not?

It looks like there will be protracted battles to determine whether a trove of paintings said to be by Jackson Pollock are authrntic or not. With lines in the dispute being drawn, “they should get the paintings out and let the sides be drawn and make some new educated observations. The thing to do is to keep an open mind until it’s all sorted out.”

Vänskä In Minnesota For The Long Haul

Finnish conductor Osmo Vänskä has signed a four-year contract extension with the Minnesota Orchestra, which will keep him in Minneapolis through the 2010-11 season. In his two years as music director, Vänskä has considerably expanded the orchestra’s national and international reputation, leading it on a high-profile tour of Europe and embarking on a project to record the complete cycle of Beethoven symphonies. Vänskä’s name has recently been popping up on the wish lists of other top orchestras in more glamorous cities, which spurred the Minnesota management to pursue the extension.

Two More Leaving Walker

Two more top officials at the Minneapolis-based Walker Art Center have resigned to take other jobs, leaving the museum – one of the flagships of the Twin Cities’ arts scene – with something like a leadership vacuum months after opening a massive addition. “Major building programs often trigger staff turnover, experts said, but it is rare for so many important players to depart simultaneously, especially when the project has gotten national rave reviews, as the Walker has.”

More Books, Less Interest

The continuing decline of reading for pleasure in America is well documented, but doesn’t seem to have been matched by a decline of available reading material – quite the contrary, in fact. “The number of new titles published last year, 195,000, increased by 14 percent over 2003, according to a new report… The biggest chunk of the increase was in adult fiction.” But with fewer adults than ever buying and reading new fiction, the strategy on the part of publishers seems more than anything like a desperate attempt to throw as many titles as possible against the wall, and hope that one or two might stick.

Newly Discovered Munch Work Unveiled

“The Bremen Kunsthalle art museum on Friday put on display a previously unknown painting by Norwegian master Edvard Munch, depicting a naked girl appearing to be threatened by a vision of the faces of three men… The painting was discovered while restoration work was being done on the Munch painting ‘The Dead Mother’… The symbolist-style painting, measuring 90 by 100 centimetres, is estimated by art experts to date to around 1898.”

Do The Arts Still Matter In A 5000-Channel Universe?

Are the arts falling behind in a cultural universe that is expanding exponentially? “The culture is constantly evolving, under the pressures of changing demographics, audience behavior, seductive new technologies and the nature of making and consuming art. No organization, no artist can afford to assume that anything that’s working today will do so tomorrow.”

Why Corcoran Turned Its Back On Gehry

Why did the Corcoran abandon its Frank Gehry addition and ask for the resignation of David levy, its director? “Mr. Levy believed that there was still a way to get the Gehry building done. Its price tag had soared to about $200 million, but ‘we’d raised $110 million, more money than any institution in this city has ever raised,’ he says. But the board felt the task of fund raising was eating up all the institutional oxygen, so it asked for his resignaton.”