Category: people

Heirs of the late Canadian painter Jean Paul Riopelle have settled their disputes and dropped their lawsuits against one another. Ripelle’s children “agreed to the sale of a small number of paintings to cover their father’s debts and to drop litigation against Huguette Vachon, their father’s common-law wife.”

Is movie critic Elvis Mitchell leaving the New York Times? Word is that AO Scott will take over the chief film critic role, and that Mitchell will leave. “The move downsizes the triumvirate that put Scott, Mitchell and Stephen Holden in charge of movie criticism when longstanding lead reviewer Maslin stepped down at the end of 1999.”

“What do museums do when they lose an old master? If it’s a painting they call the police. If it’s an esteemed leader, they call Malcolm MacKay.” MacKay is an executive headhunter specializing in museums, and has become arguably the most powerful man in the business in recent years. Last year alone, he led five searches for major American museum executives, and he was the first person the Art Institute of Chicago called last year when longtime director James Wood announced his retirement. Not a bad track record for a Harvard lawyer with no academic experience in art.

In the days since New Jersey philanthropist Herbert Axelrod fled to Cuba to avoid indictment on tax evasion charges, details have begun to emerge about the man who had been called New Jersey’s greatest arts benefactor. “It has become clear that myth and reality were always hard to separate in the life of Herbert Axelrod, whether the subject be tropical fish, charity or musical instruments… A review of lawsuits, public documents and interviews with those who were once close to Axelrod suggest he was never quite what people thought. Court papers filed in a pending lawsuit against him depict him as a liar and a womanizer who funneled cash in the form of author’s payments to a woman with whom he had a years-long affair.”

“The Corsican-born director, author and screenwriter was well-known in France for his crime movies. He began his career as a scriptwriter in the late 1950s and began directing movies such as The Hitman in the 1970s. Giovanni also won several awards in France for his crime novels. He died of a brain haemorrhage at a clinic in his adopted homeland of Switzerland.”

Hampshire College, a small, liberal arts school in western Massachusetts, is one of America’s leading producers of photographers and documentarians, to the extent that the collection of award-winning camera operators who make up the school’s alumni base have come to be known as the ‘Hampshire mafia.’ The school’s reputation has come about largely due to the efforts of one man, Jerome Liebling, who taught at Hampshire for a quarter-century. This weekend, Liebling earns an honor usually reserved for high-rolling donors: the school’s film and photography building is being renamed for him.

Where is arts benefactor Herbert Axelrod? He reportedly fled to Cuba to avoid tax charges. But “Cuba’s foreign minister yesterday denied knowing anything about multimillionaire Herbert Axelrod, who fled here to avoid tax fraud charges. ‘Cuba has never been a refuge for those fleeing justice’.”

“A philanthropist best known for selling millions of dollars worth of musical instruments at a discount to the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra has fled to Cuba to avoid tax fraud charges, authorities said Wednesday.”

With Herbert Axelrod on the lam, New Jersey has lost arguably its most dynamic and generous arts supporter. “People in the arts world were stunned. To tell the truth, they said, they had not seen him in months. And perhaps oddly, considering Axelrod said that he wanted to hear his instruments played in New Jersey, Axelrod and his wife were not current subscribers to the NJSO.”

When news broke of Herbert Axelrod’s shady financial dealings, the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra could have been excused for panicking. After all, this alleged criminal had just sold them $18 million worth of supposedly priceless instruments. But NJSO officials say that regardless of Axelrod’s behavior in other areas, the deal that brought the orchestra its collection of Strads, Guarneris, and Amatis was on the up-and-up, and they’ve got the papers to prove it.