Category: visual

“In an already controversial new book out later this month, Who Owns Antiquity? Museums and the Battle for Our Ancient Heritage, author — and president and director of the Art Institute of Chicago — James Cuno argues for a return to the idea of ‘partage.’ The term refers to the system that persisted for many years in which foreign-led experts — typically Europeans and Americans — worked with locals to excavate antiquities in countries like Iraq and Egypt.”

“Not for a long time have two such powerful positions at New York museums been open at once, and, particularly now that the spring auctions are over, the art world can talk about little else. Both search committees are working as quietly as possible, but, as always, details trickle out.”

“The monumental Thomas Moran landscape “Green River of Wyoming,” estimated at $3.5 million to $5 million, sold on Wednesday for $17.73 million at a Christie’s sale of American art in New York. The price set a record for a 19th-century American painting.” A record was also set for American Modernist paintings when a Marsden Hartley canvas went for more than $6m.

“Symmetros is a Greek word, and ancient Greek architecture used symmetry as a basic organizing principle. As did Roman, Roman-esque, and Renaissance. Indeed, it is hard to think of any architectural tradition, Western or non-Western, that does not include symmetry. Symmetry is something that Islamic mosques, Chinese pagodas, Hindu temples, Shinto shrines, and Gothic cathedrals have in common.”

“According to the plan, the museum’s exhibition space will be quadrupled to about 428,000 square feet. Compare that to the space in New York’s expanded Museum of Modern Art (125,000 square feet) or in London’s Tate Britain and Tate Modern (a total of 222,812 square feet between them). The full price tag of the project has not been announced yet, but some sources estimate it at about $380 million.”

“Asked by the Arts Council to select a show from the huge collection of modern British art it has built up, Grayson Perry has plumped for the bleakest, dullest, greyest, least sexy things he could find: if it made you want to slit your wrists, it was in. Then he produced a couple of fabulous new pieces himself and added them to the show. Thus, anyone walking in here has little choice but to notice how awful the rest are and how brilliant Grayson is. Genius.”

Edvard Munch’s masterpiece The Scream goes back on display this week for the first time since it was stolen four years ago but it will show permanent damage, museum officials said Wednesday.

As prices go up for metals, thieves are stealing public sculptures. “Outdoor sculpture makes an inviting target because it offers large amounts of metal in a freestanding object. It’s sitting there. You don’t have to break into a gallery.”

“The VAG will move into a new building on land occupied until now by the Plaza of Nations in Vancouver near BC Place. The gallery will double in size in its new home to 320,000 square feet. A call for designs for the new VAG will go out to architects in the fall, and construction is expected to start in 2011. The move won’t happen for several years — probably in 2013.”

“Today the National Trust for Historic Preservation will issue its annual list of 11 sites around the U.S. that it considers to be the ones most threatened by development, neglect or whatever other forces devour the past. Their hope is that by calling attention to places in jeopardy they can mobilize people to protect them.”