It’s been a busy month for art thieves. “The bronze statue ‘Resting Hermes,’ a remnant of the 1915 Panama Pacific International Exposition that was stolen in the 1970s and quickly returned, disappeared in the dead of night from its base outside the University Club on California Street in San Francisco.”
Blog
Artwork But No Archives For Denver’s Still Museum
The city of Denver is getting more than 2,100 artworks by the late abstract expressionist Clyfford Still, to go on display in a planned museum devoted to him. The artist’s archives, however, are not part of the deal. “While the absence of the archives would have little effect on the general public’s enjoyment of the museum, it would almost certainly prevent it from becoming a world-class research facility along the lines of the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh.”
Pittsburgh Center For The Arts Suspends Operations
With $1 million in debt, the 59-year-old nonprofit has closed its doors and laid off its 13 staffers.
In New York, Museum Security Won’t Change
“Although jolted by the daring daylight theft of Edvard Munch’s painting ‘The Scream’ from an Oslo museum, New York museum and gallery officials said they had no plans to increase security or change their procedures in response to the theft.”
Inside The Minds Of Art Thieves
“In the eyes of a typical art thief, the most dazzling of paintings is simply a multi-million dollar bill hanging on a poorly guarded wall.” How to spend it is often a detail that comes later.
Senior Discount? But Do You Really Need It?
Aiming to bring more lower-income senior citizens through its doors, London’s South Bank Centre has begun a pilot program that gives the over-60s discount only to those seniors who can prove they need it. Britain’s largest pensioners’ group, unsurprisingly, is not amused.
The Abbey At 100
Dublin’s Abbey Theatre has a legendary past and, under Artistic Director Ben Barnes, a stable present. But as it stands on the brink of its second century, what lies ahead is less than certain.
On Singapore Stages, Attack Of The Clones
As the number of Singapore’s arts organizations rises, so does competition for government funding. Many theater groups are opting for safe programming that poses little risk at the box office, but the shift toward proven titles and sexy plays is edging out new and experimental work. “Once-diverse groups are in danger of becoming market-driven clones.”
A Roll Call Of Orchestral Mediocrity
Which are the UK’s worst orchestras? wonders Norman Lebrecht. “Competition has never been so fierce. Beyond London lies a marshland of orchestral mediocrity. With the gleaming exceptions of Manchester’s Halle where Mark Elder has wrought wonders, and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra which has adjusted under Sakari Oramo to post-Rattle quietude, the rest of the civic and regional bands are in varying states of disrepair, the legacy of a generation of industrial failure.”
Please Look After These Paintings
“A day after the brazen daylight robbery of ‘The Scream’ and a second Expressionist masterpiece by the Norwegian painter Edvard Munch, museum officials begged the robbers on Monday to show greater care for the treasures than they did while wrenching them free from the wall and smashing their frames.”