Category: visual

The Cleveland Museum of Art might be closed to the public for the next few years as it undergoes a massive $258 million renovation and expansion, but the museum’s national and international profile may actually grow during the shutdown, thanks to a carefully planned series of traveling exhibitions which will highlight the Cleveland collection.

The Art Institute of Chicago has invested in a new technology designed to help it better serve a demographic usually left out of the museum-going experience: the blind. “The Michigan Avenue museum has re-created a handful of its art on portable, machine-etched plastic, which will help the blind to imagine what they cannot view. Called TacTiles, the 8-inch-by-10-inch boards replicate in relief the brush strokes of such masters as Renoir and Miro.”

It’s been three years since New York’s Morgan Library last welcomed visitors to view its impressive collection of modern art, and when it relaunches itself next week following a $102 million renovation, it will do so with a flourish designed to elevate its status in the culture-rich Big Apple. “For the 82-year-old Morgan, the point is to proclaim that it is not just a well-preserved relic from Manhattan’s Gilded Age, but a modern museum with world-class collections and a full schedule of special exhibitions. For the first time it will have space to show off considerably more of its own treasures, including a rare Gutenberg Bible, ancient Near Eastern seals and drawings by masters like Leonardo, Rubens, Degas and Schiele.”

Australia’s museums fail to acquire an iconic work by John Brack. “One thing is certain: it is a painting lost to the people of the city whose recent past it documents in luminous panes of brilliantly executed light; not just a bleakly witty record of the six o’clock swill, but one of the most exquisite moments in Australian — Melburnian — modernism. Gone.”

Harvard has announced “a comprehensive transformation of its museums that will integrate the collections currently housed in separate facilities, and eventually add a second permanent facility for modern and contemporary art in Allston.”

“French art dealers have been cheered — and rather surprised — by the results of a study released last month, which showed that art galleries in France turned over five times more than auction houses in 2004.”

Queen Elizabeth’s Royal Collection of art is vast. “It has 7,000 paintings, 500,000 prints and 30,000 watercolours and drawings. Apart from these few rooms off Buckingham Palace, you can also see parts of the collection in the other Queen’s Gallery at Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh, and in the various royal palaces that are open to the public. But this is a fraction of the whole. Furthermore, it remains unclear precisely what is in the collection, and where it is displayed (or not). There is no publicly accessible inventory of the Royal Collection.”

Sotheby’s is increasingly offering guaranteed sales prices to sellers. “If a picture sells for more than the guaranteed amount, the auction house keeps the extra money. If a picture doesn’t sell, the house risks losing all or part of the guarantee if it can’t resell the picture for enough money later.”

Last week Greek authorities seized 300 illegally acquired artifacts on a remote island. “Last week’s discovery was one of the biggest illegal antiquities cases in recent years, and police suspect international smuggling rings were involved, Greek culture minister Giorgos Voulgarakis said. However, he said there was no evidence yet supporting media reports of a link between the police raids and a dispute between Greece and the Getty Museum. Greece is seeking the return of four ancient artifacts from the museum, arguing that they were illegally exported.”

Greek authorities say they are investigating a suspected conspiracy to smuggle antiquities hidden on a remote island to major museums and other buyers abroad.