Category: visual

“An Israeli Holocaust restitutions com­pany is asking museums in Israel to hand over all unclaimed Nazi-looted art and objects held in their collections, starting with the Israel Museum in Jerusalem.”

“Put any group of 20 architects in a room and ask them to choose the buildings in their city that are of special significance, and I’ll wager no two lists will be alike. But when that opinionated mob is also the board of directors of the local chapter of the American Institute of Architects, its verdict is delivered with a certain gravitas. So say hello to the semiofficial list of San Francisco’s top 25 buildings…. And let the second-guessing begin.”

“The later years of both Claude Monet and Edgar Degas were marked by failing vision and corresponding changes in the style of their paintings, creating an ambivalence about their later work among both their contemporaries and today’s critics. … In a recent article in The Archives of Ophthalmology, Dr. Michael F. Marmor, a professor of ophthalmology at Stanford, used computer simulations to create images of what these artists might have seen as their vision declined.”

Almost since it was built, Frank Lloyd Wright’s Guggenheim Museum in New York has suffered from cracks in its facade. Now there’s a map of the repairs required.

Venice’s heritage committee last week announced that the bid by the Guggenheim Foundation has been sidelined and Pinault’s £18m plan to restore the 17th-century Customs House at the mouth of Venice’s Grand Canal and hang hundreds of modern masterpieces on its walls is now the only contender. The final terms of the agreement are being negotiated.

“Christie’s acquisition of the gallery Haunch of Venison could portend a significant restructuring of the art market, changing the terms of the artist-dealer relationship and blurring the lines between what galleries and auction houses offer. Eventually, the financial might of the auction houses could lead to the consolidation of the art business under a few owners, as happened in the book-publishing world.”

A 3000-year-old bust of Queen Nefertiti’s bust is too fragile to leave Berlin for a trip to Egypt, says the German government. “Experts are of the view that there are serious conservation and restoration concerns that argue against any long-distance transportation of Nefertiti.”

“The curator of the Vancouver Art Gallery said insects and reptiles will be removed from a controversial art exhibit on Sunday rather than comply with continuing demands from the SPCA. A terrarium of insects and reptiles called Theater of the World by renowned Chinese artist Huang Yong Ping drew the attention of animal rights groups over concerns the enclosure was cruel to the creatures.”

“So named because it surgically preserves only the facade of a historic building and attaches it to a new structure, the facade-ectomy has surfaced with rising frequency in recent years, stripping structures across the nation — cast-iron buildings in Baltimore, red-brick warehouses in San Diego and post-Chicago Fire Victorians — of everything but their skin. Often portrayed as historic preservation, the facade-ectomy tends to be something else altogether, merely smoothing the way to building permits for developers who covet the flexibility that comes from clearing historic sites.”