Category: visual

The Vatican Museum houses one of the world’s great art collections, but it doesn’t own much contemporary art. Now the Vatican says it’ll start collecting modern art. “The Vatican’s museums are among the most popular tourist attractions in Italy, with three million visitors seeing its art, sculptures, tapestries and maps every year.”

A lawsuit brought by glass artist Dale Chihuly against a former employee raises “intriguing questions about what makes any artist’s work unique, what qualifies as inspiration and what defines a mere knock-off.” The ex-employee’s dealer “expects the suit to cost him $1.6 million. He says the suit already has cost him a lot of business, including a cancelled deal with Costco stores to produce a special line of sea shapes for $550 a pop.”

“Canada is in danger of losing several of its museums because of a funding freeze that has lasted 34 years, says the Canadian Museums Association.” The situation has been brought about, the association says, by a funding freeze that has lasted 34 years…

The Association of Art Museum Curators is objecting to the Brooklyn Museum’s plan to reorganize its curatorial departments. The group says that “the new structure ‘undermines the traditional vocation of the curator-as-scholar whose commitment to a particular collection renders him or her uniquely qualified to make recommendations regarding its care and interpretation.’ The plan, which has been criticized by some curators at other museums and within the Brooklyn Museum itself, ‘raises issues that are central to the health of art museums in North America, and in fact, throughout the world’.”

So the Metropolitan Museum’s admission is going up to $20. But it’s just a “suggested” donation, and in truth, you can pay whatever you want. But is social pressure at the ticket window to pay the full fare enough to preclude paying less? A Times reporter goes to ticket windows with a roll of quarters to find out…

Britain’s museums are in crisis, according to one of the country’s leading arts charities, which has released research showing that historic institutions are being neglected by cash-strapped local authorities.

Neil McGregor has transformed the fortunes of the British Museum in his four years at the top. Now he’s planning a major show, and, to get enough room to show it, is taking over the historic Reading Room. “Few, however, expect the plan to pass uncontested. Curators at the BM are resistant to disturbance and backwoods traditionalists and backbench MPs will doubtless rally in support of the dodo. Stand by for a tabloid outcry, the anti-literate in defence of the unread, before the Reading Room is finally submersed.”

The Metropolitan Museum joins the ranks of museums loaning works in their collections for fees, with a show going to the Houston Museum of Fine Arts. “The upcoming Met blockbuster is an ‘opportunistic event,’ made possible by the need to remove the museum’s French 19th-century paintings from the walls while those galleries are expanded. It is, he said, intended to ‘raise funds for this construction’ – the first time that the Met has structured a traveling exhibition as a big moneymaker.”

An insurance company is selling a new policy that insures the ownership of art. “Their brainchild, art title protection insurance, ‘transfers risk to a third party so that people can buy and sell art with the confidence that there is not a World War II claim, an import-export issue or a lien or judgment against the artwork’.”

Greece’s two main ancient theatres will be closed in August for urgent repairs, the Greek government has announced. The theatres are used for performances and the crowds have worn down and damaged the ancient sites.