“Sotheby’s is facing a $1.8 billion lawsuit from Holocaust survivors who claim it has recklessly trafficked in works of art stolen from Jews during the Second World War. They allege Sotheby’s helped buy and sell looted masterpieces by Rembrandt, Titian, El Greco, Monet, Van Gogh and others since the 1970s.”
Blog
Gagosian’s New Digs
There’s been much hype about Larry Gagosian’s new gallery space in London. “The Gagosian Gallery proves to be a modest creation, housed in a former garage in Britannia Street, a rats’ alley smelling of diesel and urine, scuttling across the Metropolitan and Circle underground lines as they rattle between Farringdon and King’s Cross-St Pancras. Behind the gaunt facade, Larry Gagosian’s architects, Caruso St John, best known for their New Art Gallery, in Walsall, which opened in 2000, have opened up bright, cavernous, concrete-floored, top-lit white spaces. These are particularly refined white spaces; they have something of a religious air about them…”
Qatar Sheikh”s Buying Spree For Five Museums
Sheikh Saud al-Thani of Qatar is building five new museums and is serious about collecting for them. “A team of London agents working for the Sheikh bought 350 of the top lots in last months’ Islamic sales, spending well in excess of £15 million. The objects are all destined for the Museum of Islamic Art under construction in Doha to the designs of I.M. Pei, the Chinese-American architect coaxed out of retirement by Sheikh Saud. With its completion scheduled for 2006, the Islamic museum will be the first of the five to open, and the Sheikh‘s determination to buy the very best for its collection is having an extraordinary effect on the Islamic art market.”
The FBI, The Bug, And The Museum Of Modern Art
In 2002, the FBI planted a bug in the construction shed at the site of the new Museum of Modern Art in New York. The bug resulted in a 61-count indictment against 24 people including “fifteen family associates; and a number of fellows from locals 14 and 15 of the International Union of Operating Engineers, an AFL-CIO affiliate, have been indicted on charges that include racketeering, extortion, loan-sharking, and all the trimmings. “
Stalin, Movie Director
“Stalin loved movies, but he was much more than a movie-buff. The new Communist Party archives in Moscow, and the recently opened personal papers of Stalin, reveal that he fancied himself a super-movie-producer/director/screenwriter as well as supreme censor, suggesting titles, ideas and stories, working on scripts and song lyrics, lecturing directors, coaching actors, ordering re-shoots and cuts and, finally, passing the movies for showing.”
Music Falling Off Public Radio
“Music–not merely classical but also jazz, folk, blues, and bluegrass, once staples of public radio programming–is slowly being withdrawn from the public airwaves. The number of noncommercial stations identified as “classical” has been cut in half since 1993, while the number of noncommercial news-talk stations has tripled. From 1995 to 2002, the number of locally generated classical music hours on public radio declined roughly 10 percent, even as the number of public radio stations greatly increased; meanwhile, over the same period, the number of news-talk hours rose by more than 150 percent. As the tracking study researchers wrote in their report, with unseemly enthusiasm: ‘Local classical music just sits there, while NPR news-talk races ahead’.”
Some Ideas For Culture At The WTC Site
What cultural buildings should be built at the site of the World Trade Center? And what cultural groups ought to be invited to take up residence there? Eight New York Times Critics weigh in with their dos and don’ts.
A New Old Harry Potter – New Art Or Copyright Ripoff?
A comic book artist, a fan of the Harry Potter series, writes his own soundtrack to the first Harry Potter movie, replacing the original dialogue with his own. “As imagined by Brad Neely, the three main characters are child alcoholics with a penchant for cognac, the magical ballgame Quidditch takes on homoerotic overtones, and Harry is prone to delivering hyper-dramatic monologues.”
“Avenue Q” Night At Tony Awards
“Avenue Q,” the offbeat show about a band of furry-headed slacker puppets and their equally fuzzy human cohorts, pulled a stunning upset last night at the 58th annual Tony Awards at Radio City Music Hall, winning best musical, the evening’s top prize, as well as prizes for best book and best score.”
4,500 Arts Professionals In One Place
“Tuesday through Sunday, Pittsburgh will host what is arguably the largest gathering of non-profit arts executives ever, anywhere. In an unprecedented show of unity, OPERA America, Dance/USA, Chorus America and The American Symphony Orchestra League will hold their annual conventions simultaneously in Pittsburgh. Nine other arts organizations will hold off-year gatherings at Downtown hotels, including the National Alliance for Musical Theatre and American Composers Forum.”