Category: visual

“The temporary retail space allowed in October by the Museum of Contemporary Art has become the center of litigation, though. A class action suit brought Monday by an L.A. collector alleges that Louis Vuitton failed to take the law into account when selling limited-edition prints by Japanese Pop artist Takashi Murakami at his show at the museum’s Geffen Contemporary.”

After an intense grass-roots protest movement by students and alumni of Art Center College of Design, trustees of the elite Pasadena institution have decided not to renew Richard Koshalek’s contract as president when it expires at the end of 2009.

“The New York City Waterfalls, Olafur Eliasson’s grandest project yet, consists of four man-made cataracts sited on the waterfront in Brooklyn, Lower Manhattan and Governors Island. In height they range from 90 to 120 feet, in width from 30 to 80 feet, each scaled to and aligned with its surroundings.”

“The repatriation is latest step in recovering about 15,000 priceless artifacts that were smuggled out of the country by looters during the chaos following the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 and have been turning up at art auctions around the world. Many were taken from the national museum in Baghdad, and thousands more were looted from archeolgoical sites.”

“Mao Zedong tried to change Beijing into an industrial and governmental center, putting up factories and ponderous administrative buildings. But now Mao’s Beijing is nearly as much a part of the past as the Forbidden City. The factories are being pushed to the outskirts, and in their place the city has developed a skyline.”

“An art industry forum in Melbourne yesterday heard stories of some commercial galleries, dealers and auction houses attempting to pass off questionable paintings as authentic.” Solutions? “Uniform national legislation, an art-crime register, education about fraud for artists and collectors, and industry guidelines.”

“Almost half a million people visited the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art since the opening of the new Bloch Building a year ago. But the museum’s attendance figures–465,000 visitors between June 1, 2007 and June 1, 2008–falls 185,000 short of its goal of 650,000 visitors.”

Now the meticulous work of cleaning and restoring begins…

The Philadelphia Museum of Art appointed chief operating officer Gail Harrity to serve as interim chief executive officer until a permanent successor is found for director Anne d’Harnoncourt, who died on June 1.

“PaceWildenstein will unveil its 22,000 sq. ft gallery in Beijing in August, while James Cohan Gallery opens a 3,000 sq. ft space in Shanghai in July. Both galleries are counting on the rise of the Asian art market and the proliferation of regional collectors.”