Category: visual

“National museums and galleries’ spending on art for their collections have fallen by more than 70 per cent, the Conservatives said. Figures obtained by, Jeremy Hunt, the Shadow Culture Secretary, show that spending on art and other ‘heritage items’ by major galleries and museums has fallen by more than £11 million.”

“The Socialist government says the assorted icons of the Franco regime still on view — fascist-style eagles, yokes and arrows — have no place in modern Spain. A year ago, it passed a law to eliminate them. But the drive — part of a broader law aimed at redressing Franco-era injustices — has raised hackles among conservatives who say Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero is reopening wounds they say were healed after the dictator’s death.”

“Cai Mingchao, the Chinese antiques collector who placed the winning bid for two Qing Dynasty bronzes and has refused to pay, acted without support from China’s government, the official Xinhua news service reported. Cai should answer for his own actions, the state-owned news service said, citing an unidentified official at the State Administration of Cultural Heritage….”

“No one has ever backed out of a winning bid to make a political statement before, art experts say. … Christie’s, like all auction houses, screens potential bidders and checks their financial credentials. [Collector Cai Mingchao], though, may not have set off red flags because he has purchased at international auction before. He paid Sotheby’s $15 million for a Buddha sculpture from the Ming dynasty two years ago, and owns a smaller auction house in China.”

“State-owned paintings worth hundreds of thousands of pounds have been lost, stolen or damaged while on loan to government departments in the UK and around the world over the past four years.”

“A Chinese who bought two sculptures owned by the late fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent at a controversial auction has said he will not pay for the treasures, which were looted from a Beijing palace during the opium wars.”

It’s doubtful. As curator Renée Riccardo, whose group show “The Garden at 4 AM” just opened at Gana Art Gallery, notes, recessions mostly just yank young artists’ work off the walls. “If traditional art isn’t selling, galleries aren’t going to show emerging art.”

“The project, in development for two years, is about to move into the fabrication stage. The projected cost would make Train the most expensive artwork ever commissioned by a museum, surpassing Richard Serra’s $20m sculptural array, The matter of time, 2005, in the Guggenheim Bilbao.”

“In a move described by a Metropolitan Opera board member as ‘a decision of last resort,’ the company has collateralized the giant Chagalls in its lobby.”

“An exhibition of works by the French-Algerian artist Adel Abdessemed has been prevented from opening here while a prosecutor ponders whether it is illegal to display video clips showing animals being bludgeoned to death and fighting for sport in an arena.”